Against the Fall of Night
by Reparata
Summary: Humanity is being culled and as society falls into a new Dark Age, a waitress, a physicist and a bitch try to find their way through to the light. Character death in first chapter. Shenny of course. What do these 3 bring to the table? What does each take away? What happens when society's boundaries are gone and Sheldon gives free reign to his limitless imagination? Some fluffiness.
1. Chapter 1

_This is the way the world ends_  
_This is the way the world ends_  
_This is the way the world ends_  
_Not with a bang but a whimper._

_Excerpted from The Hollow Men by T.S. Elliott [1925]_

* * *

Prologue

Penny Drummond removed her facemask and breathing unit and flopped on her couch. She had spent the day looking for work in an economy that was falling apart. Sure, there was work, but she didn't fancy spending the day going door to door in residential neighborhoods looking for the dead and then hauling them out and throwing their corpses onto a flatbed truck. Not for what the government paid, anyway.

It wasn't like she had anything to really worry about. She'd been tested and found to be smack in the middle of the quartile of the tested population who appeared to be 'immune' to 'The Choker', as the disease was referred to by everyone but the was hungry and there wasn't a damned thing in her apartment to eat. She felt bad about mooching off her neighbors but, hey, a girl had to eat and both Leonard and Sheldon had offered her the 'run of the refrigerator' when the Cheesecake Factory had closed down for lack of business.

She started to walk across the hall but stopped dead at the sight of the biohazard placard and tape that sealed the door of apartment 4A. '_No! Not…' _She pounded on the boys' door and waited but there was no response so she went back to her apartment and found the emergency key. She tore the tape from the doorway and unlocked the door. She pushed open the door and cautiously called out, "Leonard? Sheldon? Is anyone here?" _'Is anyone alive?'_

* * *

LAX

"My friends, I may never see you again and it grieves me to have to leave you in this time of terrible suffering but I need to go home. Priya and my parents…there has been no word since things started breaking down over there. I should have listened to you, Sheldon, and brought them all over here."

Sheldon didn't say anything in response. He'd had his say, been ignored, and now Raj was flying into the unknown to follow a noble path: rescuing his family.

It wasn't that he wasn't sad about Rajesh's departure. Departures were a way of life since…and anyway, he felt sure that he'd see his friend again sometime in the future. When he looked at Raj, a Natural Immune like himself, he thought of Leonard and he felt a tear run down his face.

Howard was shook up over Leonard's death, compounded by his own mother's passing early in the disease's romp through Mankind. He and Bernadette had decided to stay in Pasadena despite the offer from her parents to stay with them at their cabin in the 'wilderness' of the Wisconsin Dells.

The 'Removal Team' had taken Leonard's body earlier that morning after Sheldon discovered his corpse when he had risen and prepared for work. The 'Removal Team" had sealed the apartment pending the expiration of the 24-hour notice.

It didn't matter to them that Sheldon was a Natural Immune, they were drones hired by the government and knew no other way of doing things.

"Raj, I am sure it is nothing more than a breakdown in the power grid just as has occurred in the past. With no power there are no phones or internet. If – if things are as you fear, return and stay with us. The University will persevere in the face of this adversity."

Raj embraced his friends and Sheldon couldn't help but start to cry just as Howard was doing. This triggered Raj's tears and he quickly twisted away from his friends and almost ran down the concourse to the International Departures terminal. There was no more TSA to deal with. In some respects, life had gotten simpler. Raj ran faster to escape his sadness and to catch what was probably one of the last direct flights to India.

* * *

Howard dropped Sheldon off in front of the Los Robles apartment building and then sped away in his mother's car. He was returning to his own home where, no doubt, he would continue to mourn the loss of his mother and now Leonard far in excess of the allotted period required in his religion.

Sheldon trudged up the stairs, dreading a return to the apartment he and his Leonard had called 'home' for the past 8 years. It would be lonely and whether he admitted it or not, loneliness would tax his already-teetering mental state. He needed people, at least one, preferably more, around him to provide companionship and to balance out his periods of undiagnosed insanity.

'_My mother had me tested. I've never told anyone that the test results indicated incipient insanity. The doctors simply stated, __no yet__.'_

* * *

Penny sat on the couch, in _his_ spot, sobbing uncontrollably. Her heart was broken. Leonard, even though their relationships had always blossomed and then withered with time, had been her dear friend but she mostly mourned the loss of her dearest friend, Sheldon Cooper.

'_I'll never get to tell him how much he means to me, how precious his friendship is to me, and how much I love him – as a friend.'_

She was jolted out of her mourning reverie by the opening and closing of the apartment door. She didn't look up, just ran to the corner of the living room and grabbed the bat Leonard left there.

'_Fucking ghoul looters…I'll fucking kill them!'_

"Penny, you know it's illegal to be here until the 24-hour period has expired and you were in my spot. You are not a Natural Immune and you risk – UMPH!"

Whatever he was going to say in his pedantic pose as 'lecturer of the obvious' was interrupted by 105 lbs of Penny throwing herself around him and covering his jaw and neck with kisses all the while crying and mumbling bits and pieces of phrases like '_thought I'd lost you_' and '_Oh, Moon Pie,' _and _'I love - '._

Her lips and body were driving him into a lust-filled state and he was desperate to step away, to center himself, and yet it was like being held in a velvet vise. Her arms around his neck and one of her ankles hooked behind his calf held him despite his best efforts to peel her off him.

"P-Penny, p-please…you're overwrought…Leonard's death…" He was as bad as she was, unable to complete a sentence. He also started to sob and somehow they found themselves on his couch, crying and frantically tearing at each other's clothing.

Afterwards, Sheldon just held her, shocked and amazed at the effects of coitus on him. She never said she loved him but he damn well knew that he felt something for her, even if it wasn't love.

"Shel, this thing…what we did…we can't…I mean…shit, Sheldon, this was just an emotional need for me just as it was for you, sweetie. I'm sorry that your first time wasn't with someone you loved. You deserved better but I just…I was so damned glad to find you alive."

'_Of course. She was just upset about Leonard. It was just an emotional release for her…but for me, it was so much more.'_

"Penny, I think it's time you moved in here. That apartment is just a drain on you and…since you're already familiar with Leonard's room, well, you can stay there. Did you find work yet?"

* * *

In every virology laboratory in the world, scientists worked feverishly on a vaccine to either protect those unaffected without some immunity as well as to boost the 'Probable Immunity' segment of the population's ability to fight off the disease.

However, as any virologist will tell you, the simple structure of a virus enables it to mutate to increase its survival potential.

The 'Choker' was no different. It mutated and became more pathogenic than anything ever seen before. Its victims became deranged, violent and destructive before finally succumbing to the disease. Some lasted days, while some, the lucky ones, only a few hours or minutes. The vicious and violent behavior was the first sign of infection. And it was incredibly infectious. And deadly.

The mortality rate was nearly 90%. The human race was being culled.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

* * *

A Period of Adjustment

Penny's presence in the apartment was a salve to his soul. He and the other scientists at CalTech had been reassigned to help the virologists in any capacity and Sheldon missed his Physics but did the best he could with a bad situation.

Penny spent the day scavenging. Some might call it looting but Penny never entered an occupied dwelling or store. She only scavenged those homes and apartments with the DX painted in red on the door or windows. 'X' represented the number of dead souls in the building or house.

She always wore Sheldon's 'improved' breathing mask and rubber gloves. Always. Penny felt comfortable dressed as she was. She trusted Sheldon's 'science' to keep them both healthy.

Penny parked her car in the lot of the Cheesecake Factory and used her employee key to get into the back of the restaurant. She had a list of things to search for. Some items were for Sheldon and others were for her but most were for common use.

She carried Leonard's large backpack and some pillowcases to carry whatever she found. The pillowcases had been her idea and Sheldon had smiled approvingly. He was sweet and gentle whenever she had one of her crying jags and never made fun of her or belittled her, just held her while she cried and then washed her face and put her to bed. She didn't know what she'd do if she were alone in this.

'_Hmm, the freezer units still locked. I wonder if anything in there is any good?' _She opened the heavy door but then slammed it shut again. The power had been off and the stuff in the freezer had spoiled and the smell made her gag.

'_I guess if it's in cans it's ours then.' _Penny opened up the walk in storeroom but someone had already been 'shopping' and most of the 'good stuff' was gone. She grabbed the last 50-pound bag of rice and carried it out into the large kitchen and then two large cans of peaches and added them to the stack.

'_Screw this! I'll take it all. If Sheldon's right, we'll be at a barter level soon enough and we can always trade for stuff we need.'_

Penny checked her list and scratched off only one or two items but headed out into the restaurant area and started throwing silverware, condiment containers and anything else that hadn't been picked over into one of her pillowcases. She walked behind the bar and took as much liquor as she could carry and then put all the stuff in her car and drove back to the apartment. Barter goods. Yeah. Booze would be worth a lot in a barter economy.

* * *

'_Strange. I haven't seen anyone on the street or any other cars. We need to listen to the Emergency Broadcast System reports on Sheldon's hand-crank radio.'_

Penny used to park on the street but Sheldon had insisted that she park in the underground lot where Leonard had paid for a spot for his car. She got a perverse thrill out of parking in the handicapped spot next to Leonard's car.

'_Leonard's car is newer, gets better mileage and doesn't rattle Sheldon with a blinking check engine light. We should use it. It's not like he's going to need – "_

Another crying jag hit her and she sat with her forehead on the steering wheel of her old Jetta sobbing for all that was lost. She finally cried herself out and fell asleep.

* * *

Sheldon was in a near panic. The University had closed down. Only a handful of researchers had shown up and they weren't the team leaders so they all talked over things and decided that there was no point in continuing. They all went home.

Howard drove him back to his apartment and then told him that 'Bernadette and I are heading for her folks' place in the Wisconsin Dells. You need to think about getting out, Sheldon. Maybe go home to Texas or Penny's place in Nebraska before it's too late.' He drove away, running red lights and dodging abandoned vehicles and pushing the old crate for all it was worth.

It was growing dark and Penny was still not back. He paced around his apartment and then finally went to his beloved white board and started making a preparatory plan for their departure. It wouldn't be long before order totally broke down and he needed to ensure that Penny was kept safe. They would discuss 'where' they were going after Penny returned.

He started his plan with one word: Survival.

Sheldon had read extensively about urban survival in the event of a social collapse due to war or epidemic. He'd prepared backpacks containing 5-days of survival rations and assorted sundries but no weapons. He was a scientist not a hoodlum and he hadn't considered the need to protect their group. He never figured it would really happen but enjoyed the 'what if' preparations.

'_Group. There are just two of us left. Leonard is dead. Raj is in India. Howard and Bernadette are fleeing to Wisconsin. Who is left? Who can I recruit from the University to augment our group and enhance her survival?'_

He'd been lost in his own mind and plans and finally noticed that it was totally dark and that Penny still hadn't returned. The panic that he'd held at bay by immersing himself in plans for survival roared back. He paced frantically around the apartment. His imagination created one horrible scenario after another and in each, Penny died.

Sheldon grabbed the softball bat and locked the apartment door behind him. He reaffixed the Biohazard placard hoping that any looters would be scared off by the thought of what might be waiting for them inside.

He stopped and carefully checked out each apartment to ensure that the doors were still intact and that the piece of blonde hair Penny had left draped over each doorknob was still there. She told him that no one would notice the hair and if they did, wouldn't think twice about what it meant.

* * *

Sheldon verified that the basement fire door had not been breached and then walked to the other end and into the underground parking garage.

There was Penny's red Jetta but it looked empty. Horrible images of her dead body flowed through his mind and he began to hyperventilate. He gripped the softball bat and approached her car, terrified that she was dead, another victim of the Choker.

She was lying facedown across her front seat and his heart stopped and he sank to his knees and wrapped his arms around himself and rocked back and forth, crying for his dear friend and the woman he finally admitted to himself that he loved as a man does a woman, not just as a friend.

* * *

The aluminum softball bat clattered to the concrete garage floor and it was what woke Penny. She stayed quiet and motionless while she took in her situation and remembered the events of the day.

'_Someone's out there. I heard something metallic hit the concrete. Someone is definitely out there. I can hear a keening moan and it's creepy as hell. Are the doors locked? Can they see the stuff in the back of the hatchback?'_

She sees her purse on the passenger side floor and snakes a hand into it searching for – ah – she found it.

The hairbrush has a long tapering plastic handle that ends in a sharp point. Penny uses it to tease her hair into something 'sexy' if she sees a big tipper at one of her tables. She grabs the brush and holds it by the bristly end, ignoring how the bristles hurt the palm of her hand. She wields it like a dagger and if there is anyone out there, she'll go for the eyes like they taught her in the YWCA class on self defense.

Penny coiled up on the seat and prepared to shove the door open and then spring out and attack her would-be assailant. _Strike first and strike hard_ was what the lady cop instructing the class had drilled into them. _And then run like hell!_ She had no intention of running and leaving her stuff behind. She was tired of being afraid.

She reached up and unlocked the door and grabbed the handle already visualizing how she would stab her stalker in the eye.

'_One.'_

'_Two.'_

'_Three!'_

* * *

Leslie Winkle is also a planner and she realized early-on that a woman traveling alone was just asking for trouble in the upheaval that was sure to follow the breakdown of order. She took out her PDA and began scrolling through her contacts and used her landline to make calls. She had her cell phone on the charger in case the electricity went out or she had to move in a hurry. Save for a candle on a saucer, all lights were out.

No answer at any of her 'friends' numbers, just a couple of answering machines and she left no message. She scrolled further down and dialed Leonard Hofstadter, almost wishing he wouldn't answer.

'_He'll never leave his crazy roommate to fend for himself. Well, if social order breaks down then there's no one to stop me from killing Cooper if he gets too annoying.'_ She was kidding but still, it was a possibility that she had to consider.

She left a voicemail for Leonard and then continued down her list without getting a single 'hello' out of all her calls. She called the main switchboard at the University but it just rang on and on…

She called her parents' landline and then their cell phones but got nothing, not even voicemail or a recording from their service carrier.

Leslie heard faint screams from out in the complex parking lot and she blew out the candle that she'd lit. She hadn't turned on the lights. No sense making the world aware of someone in her apartment. She moved the curtains just a bit apart and saw several people involved in a mêlée of sorts in the parking lot of her building complex.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

A woman bashed two guys' brains out while they tried to rape another woman. Admiring her handiwork for a moment, she turned and smashed the pipe she held onto the head of the woman who was lying across a car hood, almost naked, undoubtedly killing her. The basher grabbed something from the woman's hand and then seemed lost for a moment but then ran into the parking area and unlocked a car and drove off.

Winkle got scared then. She recognized the two women. They were graduate students, sisters actually, who lived 3 doors down from her. They were good neighbors and she'd been to their apartment for drinks and conversation just last week.

'_What's gotten into people? She killed her own damned sister after trying to save her! I can't wait. I have got to hook up with a strong group if I'm going to survive.'_

* * *

Penny shoved open the door and it hit Sheldon on the upper arm and knocked him over. He sprawled out over the concrete, face down. He gave up. Pretty much everyone he cared about was dead or gone. Leonard dead, Howard and Bernadette driving east to Wisconsin and Raj flying into the unknown in India to rescue his family. Or bury them. And now Penny was dead.

He didn't care much what happened to him now. He had no purpose in life any longer and no reason to continue on.

"Oh my God, Sheldon!" She pretty much figured out what had happened. Sheldon came looking for her, thought she was dead and then sat and just waited for something, anything, to happen. Worse, he'd given up.

Penny pulled his head into her lap and watched him come around. There were tears in his eyes and Sheldon Cooper didn't cry. Hell, Sheldon had no emotions whatsoever except anger and scorn and she didn't know if 'scorn' was an emotion.

"P-Penny? I thought you were dead. I came looking for you and saw the car and your body sprawled across the seat and I thought you were dead." He sat up and pulled her into a rib-crushing hug and started to cry again, making soft mewing sounds in her ear.

"Hey, honey, it's okay. I'm okay. I just had a crying jag again and it just sucked the life outta me and I guess I fell asleep. Get up and help me cart all this crap up to the apartment. I got a lot of 'barter goods, Shel, but not much in the way of real food."

"As long as you returned safely, it doesn't matter."

Penny knows that somehow they've reached a point in their relationship where friendship isn't enough for either of them but she's afraid to jeopardize what she has if she pushes and Sheldon's not on the same page. She understands so much more about Sheldon in these few short weeks than she ever dreamed of learning. Sure, he can be a real ass but he's never deliberately hurtful, just blunt. And he cares for her in his own way just as she does for him in hers.

"Yeah, well, there wasn't a soul on the road or in the area. No people looting, no cars or trucks or buses, nothing. I think we need to crank up your radio and see what the Emergency Broadcast System has to say."

"Good idea, Penny. The University is non-viable what with almost everyone either dead or in flight to loved ones pursuing safety from the Choker. I think that in view of how things appear to be headed, we might want to discuss our plans for the future."

* * *

They made two trips each and then Sheldon made a third trip. He had long ago discovered that the underground garage was equipped with a pull-down metal grill that locked on both sides at the bottom. The landlord had never used it and it was only because Sheldon had spotted the steel rings welded into the steel collar surrounding the entrance that he even knew it was there.

Sheldon found the release gadget and dropped the grill down and then secured each side with the large steel pin that was in a bracket for that purpose.

'_I'll have to do something to secure the front entrance or at least the stairwell. Maybe both. The basement door has been secured since before the Troubles and only requires a cursory security check each night.'_

* * *

Apartment 4A

Penny had stocked their pantry with what she thought they'd need out of her looted stuff and stacked the rest in the closet in Sheldon's old bedroom that was a sort of supply room now. They'd begun sleeping together in Leonard's room shortly after she moved in permanently.

That's all they did in there – sleep.

Neither wanted to cross the line although most mornings she awoke either spooned against his back or wrapped in his arms, her face flush against his chest and their legs intertwined. They never started out that way but almost always ended up that way.

She thought about using her old apartment as a 'storage locker' but figured that it would be best to keep their stuff where they had access and could keep it safe.

Sheldon rapped a trio of triplets and then unlocked the door, happy for once that she'd locked it even if she knew he was going to be along shortly. Things were different now and safety was no longer a given. Not now.

Sheldon started to say something but stopped when he saw Leonard's phone with it's little red icon that signified a voicemail. They'd left the cells on the chargers thinking if the power went out and the landline was dead, they could still possibly use their cells when they found an area with power to the towers.

"What's wrong, honey? You were saying something about the parking garage grille and – "

She saw the icon, too, and thought exactly the same thing he'd thought. '_What if it's his mother? How do I tell her that the son she never bothered with doesn't care anymore that you didn't love him like his other siblings 'cause he's dead.'_

"I have to hear the message, Penny. I'll handle the call-back if it's his – if it's New Jersey calling." He steps toward the charger and she yells, "NO! Don't answer it. Please, just let them have their hope. Don't ruin it for them. Hell, Sheldon, they're probably all dead by now anyway. Just – just…"

Softly, "Penny, they deserve to know. I would want to know if a beloved child of mine were alive or dead. I would _have_ to know, Penny."

Penny just shook her head and thought, _'Beloved child? Oh, Sheldon, he was their friggin' science experiment and Beverley wrote papers about his hang-ups. But you would want to know. You have to know everything.'_

He touched some keys on the phone and put it on speaker.

'_Leonard, this is Leslie. Look, we need to join forces if we're going to survive this and I want you and I to survive. I know you're probably holding Dr. Dumbass' hand and telling him that you'll take care of him but, but Leonard, really, he can't handle normal life how the fuck is he going to handle Armageddon? You'll need to leave him behind. He'll just jeopardize our survival and I don't want to leave him along the side of the road somewhere because he drives us nuts and have you hating me for it. Call me back at this number. My cell is off and on the charger.'_

At the sound of Winkle's voice Penny looked at Sheldon. He was frowning as he listened and then his face grew cold and his lips white with anger. Penny had never seen him mad before. Yeah, she'd seen him pissed off and aggravated but never had she seen this look on his face. It frightened her but made her feel more protective of him at the same time.

"Fuck Winkle, Sheldon. She doesn't deserve to kiss your ass. Leonard would never have – "

"Penny, he would have and we both know it. Leonard was weak and indecisive whereas Winkle is much like his mother who uses ridicule and pussy to keep the men in her life where she likes them. Since I have never displayed any interest in engaging her in coitus, she used her only other weapon – ridicule – but I wouldn't toe her line so…"

"Sheldon Cooper, did you just say '_pussy_'?" She was shocked. Oh-so-proper Sheldon Cooper used a word she knew he knew but never dreamed would pass his lips except in reference to cats not a woman's private parts.

"I apologize but it doesn't change the situation one iota. Do you think the three of us could interact together as a unit or do you feel that we should just let her try to survive on her own. I don't like her, that's no secret, but she does have skills that would increase our survival quotient, Penny. It's up to you, though, whether to 'invite' her into our group or not."

"Sheldon, why is it up to me?" Was he worried that she might be jealous of _Winkle_, for God's sake?

'_Wait, why would I be jealous in the first place? It's not like we're in a relation – oh, my God, we are in a relationship, just not a sexual one.'_

"Because you're a natural leader whereas I am a natural follower – the proverbial clueless sidekick. Consider our weapons: cutlery from the kitchen and a softball bat. I made up emergency packs for all of us covering as many possible contingencies as possible and yet…I assumed nothing would change, that social order, human behavior, would remain the same."

He stepped toward her, the cell in his hand and he puts his other palm on her shoulder and fixes her with what she's come to recognize as 'Sheldon's Lecture Look'.

"I was wrong and now we're at a distinct disadvantage, Penny, because I live in ivory towers of academia whereas you, Slugger, reside in the _real_ world. You would have looted a gun shop as the first thing on your 'to do' list when the world ends."

She's speechless but by God he's right and she wonders if she's held off doing so in light of his 'sensitivities'?

"Here, Penny, return the call. I'm going to check out the 'barter goods' and then do some research on gun shops and other sources of weaponry. I trust your judgment above all else, Penny. We'll go out together in the morning on a 'looting spree'."

He handed her a dry marker as if it were a valuable heirloom or something. The look in his eye made her shiver with a sudden desire to drag him to their bed and have coitus until he learned to say 'fuck' but she shook it off and concentrated on this newer version of Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD.

"Perhaps you should jot down some ideas of various weaponry to procure? I cede to you this white board and maker. Use them wisely, Penny."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

* * *

While Sheldon busied himself hanging blankets across the windows facing the street to block out the light, Penny made her decision regarding Leslie Winkle.

She used Leonard's cell to make the call back to the number she'd referenced. It rang a few times and then was answered by an excited and agitated Leslie Winkle.

"It's about Goddamned time you called me, Hofstadter. You need to get over here, alone, so we can make our plans. I figure – "

"This is Penny Dunn. Leonard's dead and has been for a while. It's just Sheldon and me and I just wanted you to know about Leonard since you two were friends. Goodbye, Dr. Winkle."

"Wait! Cooper's alive but Leonard's dead? Okay. That'll work out even better. I can work with you and you can keep him in his place. Come on over and we'll have a planning session. Have you seen what's going on outside?"

"Like I said, _Goodbye_, Dr. Winkle." She disconnected the call and replaced the cell in its charger. She knew she'd done the right thing. The woman was a real bitch but at least she didn't make any excuses for herself.

Penny just felt better with only Sheldon in her life. Adding Winkle to the mix, especially considering how hateful she was towards Sheldon, would shatter whatever frail relationship she had forged with the awkward physicist. She wanted more of a 'marriage' with Sheldon even without the sexual component and Winkle would prove a serious distraction.

She knew her Moon Pie still felt awkward about the single bout of emotionally-induced coitus. _'Listen to me! I'm beginning to sound like him…'_

Sheldon had moved to the kitchen and had a large mixing bowl on the table and was pouring stuff into it after carefully measuring the quantities. Between each substance, he rinsed and washed and dried the measuring cup.

"Whatcha cookin', good lookin'?" Penny leaned over to see what was in the mixing bowl and then leaped back. She couldn't breathe for a second and her eyes were watering and her nose began to run.

"I AM NOT EATING THAT, MOON PIE!"

"Good Lord, woman! Didn't you see my protective goggles, gloves and face mask? Stand back for a few moments until the mixture has a chance to gel and then ask your questions. It is imperative that the process not be interrupted at this point. There will be no odor once it gels, of that you can be sure. Just…trust me, Penny, for once? This is my world and you know nothing of it."

He turned his back on her and she walked into the living room and plopped on his spot just to aggravate him but he wasn't watching her.

* * *

Sheldon gingerly stirred the mixture with a plastic spoon and poured the mixture into several glass bottles that he'd emptied out…not her precious liquor bottles, he wasn't a total fool…and then he placed the uncapped bottles into the oven and set the temperature for 200degrees and set the timer for 17 minutes.

He replaced his protective gear in his backpack and then sat next to her on the couch, not bothering to bicker about her being in 'his spot'.

"So, what have you decided to do about Winkle's proposal? There is a certain logic to the two of you allying and finding somewhere safe to ride out the Plague. You're both much better suited to survival in the new society than I and - "

"Shut up, Sheldon! Just shut up! I told her 'goodbye' after telling her about Leonard. I won't cut you loose, Sheldon, not ever! How could you even think I'd – " Her voice had risen to near-shouting levels.

"YOU WILL, PENNY – WHEN THE TIME COMES – AND I'LL BE FINE WITH IT BECAUSE I NEED YOU TO SURVIVE!"

He practically screamed at her and then jumped up and began to pace back and forth with the coffee table between them. His hands were shaking and she could see the pulse throb in his neck and that vein in his forehead that was a precursor to a hissy fit.

"Is that so hard for you to understand, Penny? Your survival is imperative to me and Winkle has 'street smarts' and a scientific background while you have 'street smarts' and 'backwoods skills' that will enhance your survival as a team."

He tried to calm down. She could see him visibly deflate with the effort to calm him self. He whispered, "You must move on, Penny…you must."

Penny's taken aback when she hears the whispered words he probably never intended her to hear. Her heart skips a beat and suddenly she feels that giddy feeling she almost never felt with Leonard after the first blush of new romance had worn off.

'_He cares for me, not just about me. He's willing to step back and let Winkle and I go. I have to know what he really feels. Is it obligation or friendship or his damned Southern chivalry or is he paralyzed by the fear of so many changes? Or is it truly a self-sacrificing devotion to – me?'_

"Okay, suppose I do hook up with Winkle. Go where? And how? And what about supplies en route? And what about – "

Leonard's cell phone rings and she ignores it but Sheldon can't allow a phone to ring without being answered. It irks him, pisses him off and he hates Leonard's bloody ring tone for Leslie – Lionel Richie's _All Night Long_. He wonders if Penny ever called him out on it. Probably not. Penny tolerated too much in a relationship. Sheldon always felt she gave so much more than she got.

He snatched up the phone and snarled into it, "What?"

"Listen, dumbass! People are going crazy. I just watched a woman murder her _sister_ for car keys! I'm – "

"You and Penny need to discuss things face-to-face. She needs to know just what you bring to the table. Drive over here and then turn up Mariposa Street to the underground garage entrance. I'll meet you there in 20 minutes. Bring what you want to keep because you're not going back there, understand?"

"Let me talk to the blonde. I have – "

"Twenty minutes, Winkle, or you're on your own." He snarled into the phone the entire time and when Penny started to get in his face, he snarled at her as well.

"Don't, Penny. The matter is closed for discussion. Talk with her and find out what she'll bring that will enhance the journey. I think – ah, the goodies are through."

The oven timer had chimed and interrupted him so she never heard what he was going to say. She was getting so pissed at him that she could hardly keep from popping him one in the mouth.

* * *

Sheldon turned off the oven timer and put on oven mitts. He very gently took each bottle out of the oven and placed it on the counter to cool and then cap. He pushed the oven door shut with a hip and then grinned at Penny.

"I could have made more but that would have meant sacrificing wine bottles – something I know you're loath to do, Penny."

"What the fuck's going on here, Sheldon? You have no right – " She meant making 'deals' with Winkle as if she had no say so in the matter.

"Bombs, Penny. I have every right to make them. These are dangerous times and – " he reached into the mixing bowl and grabbed some of the thick gelled mess on a finger and flicked it at the wall.

**BANG! **

Penny yelped in surprise at the explosion and the hole in the wall, a fist-sized hole. Her eyes were bugging out of her head and she was beginning to hyperventilate.

"As I was saying, Penny, these are dangerous times and these four bottles, once cooled and allowed to set after being capped, may give you an edge when you need one. I'll go over the necessary handling features for safety but using them," and here he got his damned smugly superior look, "requires nothing more than a good aim and a strong arm, both of which you possess, Slugger."

"Sheldon – you keep bomb-making stuff in your apartment? Are you nuts?"

"Actually, I made these from stuff we salvaged from your kitchen. Every household is a bomb-making factory, Penny. Ammonia, bleach, iodine (that's from my stocks), all mixed in the proper proportions, and empty bottles and voila! Bombs."

"Holy shit, Sheldon! That's incredible. How do you light them?"

"As I said, Penny, you just throw them hard and they go off…and once we place loose coins or screws or nails or whatever is at hand onto the sticky side of duct tape and wrap the bottles just once, we have grenades. Child's play, really. I blew up my Mee Maw's old outhouse with one when I was eight or nine. Made my Pap Paw finally get indoor plumbing."

It was too much for her. She started to laugh and laugh until she was coughing and in danger of puking. He looked at her indignantly and waited for her emotional outburst to subside before continuing but she surprised him with a fierce hug.

"Sheldon, you never cease to amaze me. We don't need Winkle, honey. We – "

"Crap! She'll be here in a few minutes. Look, once these have cooled, put the caps back on them and then scrounge up loose change, nails, screws, anything that will hurt when it hits flesh and we'll finish these up when I get back."

"Back from where?"

"The garage grille is down and locked and I told her to come in that way. She'll need help carrying up all the crap she 'thinks' she needs. I'll make her sort it out downstairs to save my aching back from making a lot of trips."

Penny had a momentary vision of her rubbing massage oil into Sheldon's back in bed. She could almost feel his smooth skin under her kneading fingertips. She shivered and then glared at him as if her lewd thoughts were somehow his fault. She reluctantly released him and watched him leave.

* * *

Winkle was early and impatient and was blowing her horn every few minutes. Sheldon heard the horn from the lobby and muttered that he was going to shove that horn up her butt if she didn't quit calling attention to the building.

She drove into the garage and stopped and got out. Sheldon closed the grille and locked it with the pins and then turned on her, pissed off and ready to knock her on her ass.

"How stupid are you, Winkle? Why not just send up fireworks to announce your arrival? You're early and that's your fault. We don't need the building overrun with looters or nutballs or any other people who lurk in the dark."

They unloaded her backseat and trunk and Sheldon insisted that she unpack her three suitcases and two backpacks. The two cardboard boxes of canned goods were definitely going upstairs so he sent her up with one while he sorted through the amazing pile of crap she thought was 'necessary'.

Hairdryer? Makeup? Text books? Where the hell did she think she was going – to a symposium? It all went into the trash barrel but there were things she and Penny would need.

Feminine hygiene products went into a sports bag as did a box of condoms. They might need to 'negotiate' or join a social group and an unwanted STD or pregnancy would not be welcomed. He threw party clothes away, high heels, and a curling iron, but kept the 3 pairs of sneakers and a pair of hiking boots to the suitcase.

"What the hell, Cooper! I need that stuff. What do you think you're doing?" Penny and Leslie had come down to help him carry up stuff and Winkle went ballistic when she saw what he'd trashed.

"Saving you time and prepping you a survival backpack. If the car breaks down and you have to hoof it, you won't want all this weight." He looked at her car and shook his head. Too small. An idea blossomed in the back of his mind but he set it aside for later examination.

It was late by the time they got everything upstairs that was needed in the short run. The rest was left in her car for later repacking along with Penny's stuff.

"I'm taking a shower and going to bed. You two need to formulate a plan that will ensure your survival. Penny, please show her the survival packs I made up. She might have some other ideas about what you'll need. Leslie, take my room to sleep in when you finish up. Goodnight."

Penny watched him leave the living room and turned to Winkle. "He comes with us or there is no 'us', understand? No debate."

Winkle knew there was no moving the blonde from her position regarding the dumbass so she just jumped right into the planning.

* * *

Penny crawled into bed and snuggled up next to Sheldon. It was really late and she was dead tired. She and Winkle had reached a general consensus and she wanted to talk with Sheldon but he was asleep.

She kissed the corner of his mouth impulsively and then rearranged his arms so that she could wrap them around her and sleep safe.

He was gone when she awoke. She stumbled out into the kitchen and saw that he'd made fresh coffee and cut up the last of their fresh fruit into a bowl for her.

Then she read the note folded under her clean cup.

"Damn you, Moon Pie. You better not be late or I'll…"


	5. Chapter 5

Last chapter for a while. Enjoy it. It would be nice to see your reactions, all 243 or you…

Chapter 4

* * *

Sheldon glances down at his watch and smiles. He's well within the limits of his deadline although he doubts Penny would leave him behind should midnight come and go without his return. She was sentimental and would want to hug him and say goodbye. Still, he had been adamant in the note he'd left her and considering all that had happened in the last 36 hours, prudent.

He fished his cell phone out of the pocket of his appropriated field jacket, turned it on and punched in the speed dial for the apartment's landline. He needed her to zip down and raise the parking garage grille but first he wanted her to measure the height of the opening. He didn't want an embarrassing or dangerous accident to occur.

"Where the hell have you been, Sheldon? I've been worried sick and even Winkle is concerned. You should hear the tale she tells about what happened in her parking lot and – "

'_She must have had her hand on the receiver because the phone never rang but must have displayed caller ID.'_

"I need you to go down to the garage and measure the height of the opening, Penny. There's a tape measure in the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen. Call me back when you get the measurement. I'm sorry you were worried needlessly."

He disconnected and navigated through the few cars on the interstate that were still in motion. Most of the abandoned vehicles had been pushed to the sides but there was always the one or two that were in motion when their drivers died. They created a maze of carnage.

* * *

Apartment 4A

"That was Sheldon. He's on his way home. He wants me to measure the height of the parking garage grille."

Winkle picked up the softball bat and said, "I'll go with you. There's no telling what might be going on. Did he say where he was?"

"It sounded like he was in a car but Sheldon doesn't drive. Maybe he hitched a ride with someone? I can't believe he just left like that without a single word."

"Well, Penny, he isn't the most stable person even in normal times."

She almost agreed. His note had simply stated that he had 'errands' to run and that were he not back by midnight on Thursday, they were to leave without him because it meant he wasn't ever coming back. That had been on Tuesday morning and now it was nearly midnight on Thursday.

Penny called him back with the measurement. "Sheldon, exactly where are you?"

"I'm about to exit the interstate and then pick up a few last-minute things for your journey before coming in. I want you and Leslie packed and ready to leave first thing in the morning. I'll go over things when I get back in twenty minutes or so. Start moving everything out of the apartment except for my emergency backpack and a couple of bottles of water. Take the rest for your journey."

Her answer is firm and immediate. "No. Either you come with us or Winkle can either join us here in the apartment of go out on her own. I will not leave you, Sheldon."

"We will discuss this further but please have the first aid kit in hand when I arrive." He hung up and she almost screamed in frustration at his pig-headedness.

"Les, please go up to the apartment and bring down the big first aid kit that's under the bathroom vanity. I think the big ape hurt himself."

"Figures. Probably cut his finger on something and now we'll have the drama queen demanding a sterile field before we can put a bandaid on it."

"Just go and get it. He's not that big a drama queen. You should have seen Le - just go get the kit, Leslie."

* * *

Sheldon _drove_ the big rig up to the fenced sales lot, turned off the engine and carefully maneuvered himself out of the driver's seat and then down onto the lot. He used the bolt cutters he'd 'borrowed' from a hardware store to cut through the padlock and pulled open the twin gates. He got back into his rig and drove carefully into the lot, looking left and right until he saw what he needed.

A few minutes of maneuvering and he hooked up the enclosed horse trailer to the hitch and drove out onto the street. Now he had to find one last place on his list and he could relax and let Penny and Winkle do the 'heavy lifting'. He adjusted the field dressing and then Googled for a location nearest to him.

He was reviewing customer comments on a website to help him make his selections. He also had to consider the size of the two travelers. It wouldn't do if they were too small to handle his surprise.

It took him nearly half an hour to load his 'purchases' onto the trailer and by then he was tired and aching. He hadn't eaten or slept in 30 hours and he was exhausted and hungry and hurting.

* * *

Penny looked at her watch and called him again on his cell phone. The last three calls had gone to voicemail and he was way overdue given his 'guesstimate' of his arrival time. It was nearly 3am and she was past being worried.

"Blondie, you're going to pace a rut in the concrete. He's just a little late. Maybe he ran into trouble and had to find another route? Maybe he got lost. Maybe he got hur – caught up in something. You know how he is when he's focused on something."

"Don't call me 'Blondie' and he never gets lost. Damn it, Moon Pie, pick up the phone!" It went to voice mail again.

Sheldon carefully maneuvered down Euclid Avenue. The damned street was perpetually 'under construction' and he'd had to push a couple of cars out of the way before continuing. He speed dialed Penny's cell.

"Sheldon, that's a long damned 20 minutes! Where – "

"I'm turning onto Mariposa. Please raise the grille."

Winkle was the first to find her vocal cords but she couldn't find the words to say…she just gaped in wonder.

Penny was standing off to the side, ready to lower the grille but she just stared at the beast that rolled down into the garage. And then she saw the horse trailer and started to laugh. Leave it to Sheldon to come up with an elegant solution to their transportation issues. And it was elegant.

It had started life out as a diesel-powered high-end motor coach but somewhere along the way it had grown an exoskeleton of chain link fencing that covered the sides, front and rear. There were two 55-gallon oil drums lying on their sides on the roof with hoses that snaked down the side and into what she figured was the fuel tank. There were steel plates welded over the wheels to protect them from gunfire and the side windows were similarly shielded as was the huge glass windshield.

"Holy crap, Cooper! You might as well have brought home a tank!" There was no malice in Leslie's voice, just a sense of delighted awe. He'd done all this in just three days.

"Leave it to Sheldon to bring home an armored mobile apartment. The man does like his comforts. Where is he?" Between the steel sheeting and the limousine-tinted glass, she couldn't see inside. The door was covered in chain link fencing that was held away from it with brackets and she couldn't get her hand in to open it.

Sheldon opened the door from his side and stepped out and down and then leaned against the side of his beast. He was clearly exhausted and filthy but he'd never looked better to Penny. Somewhere along his travels he'd picked up some Army surplus BDUs and boots and a field jacket and he looked good in them. Filthy, but good.

"Don't say a word, Moon Pie, just go with it." She reached her arms around his neck and pulled him down and kissed him. She didn't care that Winkle was snickering behind her. All she cared about was Sheldon holding her, although awkwardly, and kissing her back, just as awkwardly.

"Ahem! If you two want to head upstairs and get naked and sweaty, go right ahead but I want to check out this monstrosity. Man, Cooper, I need to have you run 'errands' for me. A Maserati convertible, a few hundred thousand bucks, and – "

"There's a bag of money in the coach. Also a bunch of stuff I got from a pawn shop. Mostly rings and some silver bars and a few gold coins. Use it for barter later. Right now I want a shower so bad. I stink Penny. Did you bring the first aid kit? There's a list of everything I scrounged up and there are two last-minute surprises in the horse trailer for you and Leslie. I hope you like 'Urban Camouflage gray'."

His eyes, red rimmed from lack of sleep twinkled and his East Texas twang had never sounded sexier to her.

Winkle slithered past the two, still hugging each other, and climbed up into the coach.

"Holy Shit, Sheldon Cooper, this is so crazy! Blondie, bring him back up here and bring the first aid kit and let's put a bandaid on his boo-boo and then take inventory."

* * *

Leslie was sitting in one of a pair of relining chairs along one side of the 'living room' and when Penny helped Sheldon up into the coach, she pointed to the couch.

"He can nap while we fix him up. We'll take inventory and see just what's in those wooden cases he's piled up in the kitchen. And maybe find the lights."

"Generator's propane powered when the engine is off. It comes on automatically but the master switch is off. Turn it on from the dashboard console. The lighting master switch is right beside it. Sorry, wasn't thinking…"

Penny helped Sheldon off with his jacket and then unbuttoned the BDU blouse. She eased him down onto the leather couch and then gasped and shouted for Winkle to forget the lights and help her.

"He's bleeding and has a bandage tied around his waist somehow. What the hell happened to you, Moon Pie?"

Winkle had the propane generator started and the lights came flickering on throughout the coach automatically. She grabbed the white plastic first aid kit and knelt down to see how badly the idiot had hurt himself. The sight of blood made her dizzy even in a movie. The smell –

She barged past Penny and climbed down out of the coach and threw up what little she'd eaten in the past day or so. Her stomach was roiling and she was suddenly terrified that this was some kind of mutation of the Choker.

"Penny, go check on her. If she starts acting angry, get back in the coach and secure the door. She was right. The Choker has mutated again and it's worse than you can imagine. People become raving lunatics at the drop of a hat and…"

"Hush, sweetie. I'll go check on her. I'm sure it's just the stress, no sleep and then this…" she waved a hand at the bloody dressing. "I'll be right back." She put her palms on his cheeks and looked him in the eye. "And then you _will_ tell me how all this came about."


	6. Chapter 6

Won't be hearing much from Dug^2. Sad.

* * *

Chapter 5

Penny eased down the two steps and then the drop from the coach to the concrete floor of the garage. Winkle was still on her hands and knees with spittle running out of her mouth to the puddle of puke on the cement.

"You okay, Leslie?" She handed her a bottle of water from her backpack and then squatted down to wait, a safe distance away. Winkle rinsed out her mouth and spat and then repeated the process.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. The sight of blood…I get woozy but the smell is more than I can stand. How bad is it, Penny?" Winkle tossed the empty plastic bottle into a nearby trash bin and said, "Two points. My Dad would be so proud of me." There was a bitter tinge to her voice. Her father was – had been – a longshoreman and had little use for his only daughter.

"Ah, why don't you close the grille and check out the trailer while I handle the blood and gore. I guess an experimental physicist isn't used to dealing with blood. It's okay, Leslie. It takes some getting used to."

Penny went back up into the motor home and Leslie closed and locked the grille. She did a quick walk-around the huge bus. Sheldon had turned a rich man's RV into a desperate man's armored bus in three days. She could see where he'd welded something on, then cut it off and welded something else in its place. He'd been learning as he went along. It was obvious because the weld's got more and more professional looking and seemed to economize whatever he used.

The big surprise came when she opened up the enclosed horse trailer. She half-expected to find horses but instead there were two camouflaged four-wheelers and two spare tires for the bus. There were also two 55-gallon fuel drums that were full as well as two red plastic 10-gallon gas cans that were full, two propane tanks like you used in a gas grille, and a toolbox and several 5-gallon containers of motor oil. Nylon straps that looked like parachute rigging secured all to the walls of the trailer.

'_I seriously misjudged you, Sheldon Cooper. For a dumbass you sure handle Armageddon like a pro.'_

* * *

Penny deftly cut the long ties of the bandage with scissors from the first aid kit. She started to gently remove the pressure dressing but it stuck and as she eased the dressing away from the cloth she heard his moan of pain.

"Sorry, sweetie, but it's dried on. I need to wet it down and then take it off gently. It'll hurt thought no matter how I do – NO!"

Sheldon reached down and grabbed the dressing with his dirty hand and snatched it away, biting his lower to stifle the scream.

"Just sew it up, Penny. There's an Army field medic's bag behind you on the floor. You'll find everything you…oh, damn…" He started to hyperventilate, not looking at her, ashamed of his weakness.

'It' was a 4 or 5-inch gash in his side just above the belt of his trousers. It looked to be about ½ inch deep and she could see the wound resembled a surgeon's incision. Her stomach flipped over and she shuddered when she realized that someone had done this to him.

She knee-walked over the expensive carpet to the camouflaged Army pack on the floor and tore open the Velcro straps and rummaged around, throwing things aside and putting others in a small pile before her.

When she had everything she needed together, she went back and spread everything out in the order she thought she might need them. She could sew. It was just not two pieces of cloth or a dress she was hemming or a button she was sewing back on. It was Sheldon.

She opened the sterile suture kit and examined the threaded needle and then the wound and she panicked. She couldn't do it. It was Sheldon and it would hurt and they had nothing to deaden the pain and – and – and she couldn't do it.

* * *

"Move over, Barbie, I can do it. Just – just hold him still and mop up the - " Leslie swallowed down the sudden rush of bile but steeled herself to sew the wound closed. "Mop up the blood so I can see what I'm doing. Just don't get any on the couch. He'll have a shit-fit about the stain."

Penny folded Sheldon's arms across his chest and then lay down across it and talked to him softly. She talked about where they should go, what the weather might be like in the mountains in December if they went north and then east. She told him how proud they both were of the job he'd done and how he was a fool for_ever_ thinking she could leave him behind.

"I'd rather stay here with you and face whatever's going to happen together than be safe somewhere without you."

Leslie straddled Sheldon's thighs to keep him from kicking and leaned down as close as she could get to see what she was doing.

He groaned when she took the first stitch and the second. Penny saw how tightly his eyes were closed and the trickle of tears that ran down his temples and into his hair. Each time Leslie took a stitch he flinched and his whole body stiffened.

Ten stitches. They were sloppy but considering that her only sewing experience had been sewing in the hem of a skirt she'd torn, not bad.

"Okay Dum – er, Sheldon. Sorry, habit. You'll have a scar to show the ladies and probably a hairy tale to explain it. I need some air and Penny will clean up the wound and put on antibiotic crème and a clean dressing. It shouldn't get infected but we'll check it a few times a day and change the dressing. Call my secretary for an appointment to have the stitches removed when they itch. I'll try to squeeze you into my busy schedule."

It was a dumb joke but they all laughed and appreciated the effort. Penny especially. She found a plastic pill container of penicillin caplets among Sheldon's gleanings and made him take two.

She looked at the pharmacy label on the container. _'I wonder who Mrs. Arlene Milstead was?'_

"I'm going to the apartment and shower and get Sheldon's fluids from under my fingernails and then I'll bring down what I can carry. Penny, keep an eye on our errand boy. I have a feeling we're really going to need his unique skill set in the months to come," said Leslie, intently studying the dried blood under her fingernails and marveling at how her hands had not shaken at all while she sewed him up as best she could.

"Sheldon, can I trust you to just lie here until I get back? I want to get some sheets and blankets and stuff and make up the bed and you can crash right here, okay?"

"Penny, I stink. I've not bathed since I left and my skin is crawling with germs and – "

"Barbie, help him upstairs and I'll – " she was staring at her hands again.

"Leslie, there is an unopened bottle of hand sanitizer as well as some pHisohex surgical soap in my backpack. I liberated stuff from a pharmacy. That's where I got cut. Some drugged-out freak slashed me with a scalpel but I needed stuff and he was in my way."

Winkle frowned. It was a measure of how exhausted Cooper was if he had these things and never insisted she 'scrub up' before sewing him up.

"What happened then, Moon Pie?" Penny asked, just to keep him alert while she helped him up and pulled his BDU jacket around his shoulders. He really did stink and she had to figure out some way to cover the dressing so he could shower.

"He was totally irrational and raving about getting even with the world. He was slashing at my throat and he'd knocked me into a corner and I had no choice. I – I killed him."

"Wh – when did this happen?" Leslie was shocked that someone as nerdy as Sheldon even knew which end of the gun the bullet came out of but then she remembered him saying that 'everyone in his family played with guns before they could walk'.

"The first morning I think. Things got kind of mixed up and I'm not sure. Maybe the afternoon. I'm not sure of when. What difference does it make now. He's dead. I killed him – and he wasn't the last one. It's a mad house out there. People…people are killing each other like in some video game."

* * *

After getting him cleaned up, Penny put him to bed and then went out to the living room. She needed a drink. Several.

Winkle was way ahead of her. She had opened a bottle of 'the good stuff' that Penny had taken from the Cheesecake Factory a million years ago.

"So, are you two sleeping together?" Leslie asked bluntly.

"Yeah. But sleep is the operant word. Listen to me! I sound like Sheldon!"

"I only asked because there's you two in Leonard's room and I wanted to sack out in a bed, not on this couch. It was fine for a night or two but not if the bed's available."

"Oh! I thought…yeah. I like him beside me. Makes me feel safe and – and I know he wouldn't admit it in a million years, but he needs the human contact."

"Okay. I think we should have some options prepared before Dr. Dum – I have to quit calling him that – Sheldon wakes up. He'll sleep all night and probably most of tomorrow. Let's come up with options, finish this bottle of excellent rum, and then crash. He's a surprise, that man. Never figured he'd 'rise to the occasion' but here we are, ready to flee the end of the world in a custom armor plated motor coach."

"Here's to…survival." They toasted each other and then got busy writing destination options on Sheldon's white board.

Nothing more was said about the sleeping arrangements.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

"Hungry." It was all he said when he walked into the kitchen 16 hours later and reached up for a high fiber cereal. Winkle was sitting at the table drinking one of the last soft drinks they had and saw him wince when he reached up to get a box of cereal.

"There's no milk left, Sheldon. I can scramble you some eggs and you can have toast. Penny's down in the parking garage checking out the goodies." She hesitated and then plunged on.

"I'm sorry for questioning your presence on this, Sheldon. I had no idea you could be so organized and resourceful in the real world. I apologize."

She was sincere so he just smiled and nodded his acceptance of her offer. "Yeah, eggs would be fine. Thanks."

He needed a shave and his hair was a mess. His voice was scratchy and the strain of the last weeks was apparent in the worry lines around his eyes. He looked…older, tired and worried, but somehow more mature. Leslie thought he looked…good sitting there in a camouflaged t-shirt and boxers and bare feet. He looked like a man who'd been rode hard and put away wet but Penny said they just 'slept' and she had no reason to doubt her.

"Tell me about your adventure. I want details, not just a summary like you'd head a paper with. No executive summary; I want details."

* * *

_He had risen early and dressed. Penny was still asleep, curled up in the warm spot where he'd been. She looked so beautiful asleep, her face free of worry. He resisted crawling back in with her. He had things to do._

_Sheldon left her a note and headed downstairs. He took Leonard's car and went through the routine of driving out onto the street and then running back into the garage and closing the grill. He'd rigged it so that it locked automatically when the gate closed._

_He consulted his mental list and then the notepad with locations and headed out into the nightmare that was Pasadena. He jumped on the interstate and made his way down to Compton. He hated to do it but once he found alternate transportation, Leonard's car was no longer needed. 'Sorry, Leonard,' he mumbled as he left the car in the dealership lot, keys in the ignition._

_Thanks to Howard's involvement in various projects for NASA, he now had a list of fabricators who had only the finest materials and top-notch equipment._

_The motor coach was 42 feet long, had a maximum range of 1200 miles on on-board 100 gallons of diesel but that wasn't good enough. He secured two 55-gallon drums and made for the nearest fabricator shop on the list. _

_He punched in GPS and drove carefully through almost empty streets for an hour. Someone threw a rock that banged against the metal of the coach and then another that banged off the window frame near his head. That prompted a change of plan and another delay._

_He read the manual and started to work. It looked simple but by the end of the day he had a new respect for people who worked with their hands. His own were burned and dirty and stiff. There was a pharmacy a block down the street and he headed down there to get some hand sanitizer and fill some open prescriptions for antibiotics and sundries assuming the place hadn't been looted._

_The automatic doors weren't working but someone had thoughtfully kicked out the glass so he eased his way in and then stopped. It looked like a tornado had struck the Walgreen drug store. There were broken items and discarded clothing all over the floor and the most popular aisles, the ones holding batteries, bottled water, baby formula and food, were practically bare._

_He put a shopping cart back on its wheels and started to slowly make his way behind the counters and found several cartons of cigarettes and he added them to his cart thinking that they might be good barter items. Next he bagged up all the unopened candy and gum. Penny had a sweet tooth and they could always use them for bartering._

_Personal hygiene came next with toothbrushes, paste, lip balm, floss, sanitary pads and tampons, and almost shyly, he took down all the prophylactics on the rack. He had no intention of using them but again, the girls might require them if things turned ugly in the future._

_He bagged aspirin, cold remedies, mouthwash, shampoo and conditioner and soap as well as rubbing alcohol and anything else that might be useful or of value in the new world to come. He found hand sanitizer and surgical-grade disinfectant soap just before coming to the pharmacy section._

_Drugs. He hopped over the counter and began gleaning what few drugs remained, using his forearm to sweep them off the metal shelving and into his large trash bag. He didn't care what kind they were or what purpose they might fill, everything was valuable to someone._

_When it was full, he put it in the cart and got another bag and started to head for the locked cabinets but someone grabbed him around the neck and shoved him into the shelving and then screamed gibberish at him. Shocked and scared he fell but when he tried to crawl away, the man attacked._

_His name was Paul and he was the pharmacist according to his nametag. He stabbed at Sheldon but Sheldon kept kicking at his knees and scuttling far enough away so that he could get to his feet and run._

_The tall man slashed instead of stabbing at Sheldon who'd been prepared to parry any thrusts and he felt his clothing give way effortlessly and then a burning pain in his side that made him scream like a girl. _

He stopped talking and went into the kitchen and scraped off the eggs into the trash, rinsed the plate then washed and dried it and walked to his room. He remembered what had happened next but he was damned if he'd say the words. That made it real.

'_I killed him. I bashed his head in with some ceramic thing I grabbed off the counter. I kept hitting him until his skull was crushed and his brain was mush. I only said I shot him because it seemed less savage somehow. I didn't have the pistol then, just that heavy thing that I bashed him with again and again and again...'_

* * *

"Is Sheldon still asleep?" Penny had a sheaf of papers in her hand and wanted to know why he needed some of the stuff he'd cached away. She'd spent the last 3 hours going over the 'manifests' and various lists that Sheldon had all over the bus.

"He was up earlier for a short while. I scrambled him a couple of eggs and asked him to tell me about his adventure. He did. Not all, but enough for me to know he's a survivor and we need him. He took a shower and then I think he went back to bed. He only told me part of it but that was enough."

"Okay." She saw how Leslie was nervously twisting her fingers around one another and sat down across from her. She reached out and grabbed her hands to stop her and get her attention.

"Tell me what he said. There are things in the bus that…he must have robbed a bank or jewelry store and it looks like he hit the National Guard armory judging by the clothes and other stuff he's got on this list."

She handed Winkle the 'inventory' Sheldon had made up on the back of some advertising fliers. "See if you can figure out what some of this stuff is or maybe can be made into? I watched him make grenades and bombs right here in the damned kitchen from stuff from _my_ kitchen!"

* * *

He was asleep on his side and probably wearing only boxers but he was covered from the waist down by a sheet and she snuck over to 'his' side of the bed and checked out his dressing. It was new and taped almost professionally and she wondered if Winkle had done it.

A sleepy voice interrupted her musings. "Penny, it's not polite to touch people when they're sleeping. I assure you that the wound is not suppurating nor is the sutured area red or swollen more than one would expect from something so newly treated."

"I didn't mean to wake you, sweetie. Go back to sleep and we'll talk about the inventory sheets later when you're rested."

"Penny, could you do me a favor? I didn't think to bring up a clothing bundle for myself and I trashed the clothes I wore back here and so I'm – don't grin so lasciviously, Penelope - naked under here. Could you please fetch the bundle for me? There's one for both you and Winkle but I had to guess at the sizes for Leslie. I already know yours."

Her grin widened and he looked at her askance. "What! After picking up your dirty clothes in that septic tank of an apartment, how could I not know your sizes? Really, Penny, observation is one of the keystone principals of the Scientific Method."

"Awww, that's so sweet even though you cloak it so unconvincingly in the 'logic of science'. Admit it, Sheldon, you care for me, maybe even love me a little bit, doncha?"

He turned bright red and spluttered on about something she didn't even bother listening to. Instead, she cupped his cheek and kissed him on the lips, softly, chastely, with no hint of the wildness of that frantic coupling of weeks ago. This wasn't desperation. This was…she felt exhilaration.

"Penny! Control your baser instincts, woman! Winkle is in the next room and – " he was whispering tersely but she shut him up with another gentle kiss and then she whispered, "I'll control my 'baser instincts' for now, Moon Pie, but you know I'm right. I need to check your dressing again, sweetie."

"PENNY!" She whipped the sheet off him and her eyes ran over his lanky form, hesitating at the sight of his flaccid manhood before continuing to the dressing.

"Hush. You have nothing to be ashamed of." He was trying to jerk the sheet from her hands but she wouldn't let go.

"Nuh-uh. Let Nurse Penny see to your dressing and then maybe I'll let you get up. Seriously, sweetie, we can't chance infection. Lord knows what germs might have been on whatever sliced you up."

Penny gently closed his door. The smile on her face only got bigger when she saw Winkle's look of surprise.

"Well, it's true. He's got nothing to be ashamed of! I'm going down to get his clothes. I'll bring yours up and then we'll finish off whatever's in the fridge for dinner and finish up our planning."

* * *

Next morning

Sheldon had wanted to get an early start but the girls had so many questions that he felt an 'orientation' briefing was necessary.

He went over every facet of the operations of the vehicle, the meanings of all the gauges, the steps necessary to level the coach and lastly, how the generators and water and waste storage tanks were accessed and emptied.

"What about these, Sheldon. Why all the guns and ammo? We're going up north and then east towards Nebraska, not invading Mexico." She was admiring the 9mm Beretta that he had given to each of them along with several magazines and two boxes of ammunition.

"People have needs, Penny. There are no laws or order and they will fill those needs any way they can. You need to load those magazines and then figure out how the things load and where the safeties are. I never handled an automatic pistol, just revolvers and hunting rifles." Neither noticed the twitching outbreak that spawned all over his face.

"I have. I used to date a guy who was a survivalist." She saw the looks she got from Penny and Sheldon. "Hey, he was great in the sack, taught me how to shoot and scoot. Why do you think I was so good at paintball?"

"Okay, Leslie. You're the expedition's weapons expert." Leslie nodded and then began taking her own inventory of what he'd scavenged up in the way of things that killed people.

"Penny, didn't you notice the western sky this morning?"

"Well, yeah, it was a beautiful sunrise."

"The sun rises in the east, Blondie," Winkle frowned when she thought about it. She hadn't noticed anything but then she wasn't a morning person.

"That _beautiful sunrise_ was Los Angeles burning, Penny. Things are going bad more quickly than I figured even given my limited understanding of the actions of human beings in such situations."

The lights in the garage died at that moment and it was eerily quiet. There were none of the noises of a living city. No sirens. No horns. Nothing.

Sheldon walked down and out of the coach and the girls followed him. Sheldon took one of the rods that locked the grille down and walked around the coach smashing every light, including the headlights.

"What the hell, Sheldon! Why – "

"It's bad enough this thing sounds like a bus, but at night there's no sense advertising our exact location. There are night vision devices in the green duffle bag and the batteries are rechargeable. We'll need to rig up blackout curtains for all the windows so we can have light at night."

Sheldon looked at his two companions and frowned. "You two will have to share the driving. I barely got this thing here and with the trailer, I'm afraid it's more than I can handle."

Winkle laughed and then quickly explained that, "for a guy to admit that two women are better drivers…maybe it _is_ the end of the world."


	8. Chapter 8

Taking a break for a few days. Got things to do.

* * *

Sheldon was typing furiously on his laptop. He had originally just gone to Map Quest and plotted a route that would take them from Pasadena to Omaha by the fastest route but now…

He knew that Las Vegas was the first major city on their route and if L.A. had burned so quickly then he had no doubt that Vegas, with its large population of tourists and visitors would be a madhouse with roads clogged with vehicles and traffic jams as people panicked and fled the city for their homes. Abandoned vehicles and those filled with dead refugees would make Interstate 15 impassable.

He began to doubt the wisdom of his plan and when he doubted himself, he sulked and became almost unapproachable.

"We'll head to Barstow first, ladies. I think Vegas will be just another L.A. by the time we get there. Once we get to Barstow we'll reevaluate your route given what we find. I should have realized that your route, though the most efficacious, would take you through large cities and all they entail. I should have…"

Winkle and Penny exchanged looks. Penny had never seen a 'Sheldon melt down' but Winkle had been there for the Monopole fiasco after the Pole trip and had seen him first hand. Penny had only seen the tip of the iceberg when he returned from Texas.

Winkle sat down on the couch beside Sheldon and placed a hand on his forearm. He was trembling in anger at himself and she whispered that they needed him focused on finding them a safe route. They were depending on him to keep them safe.

Penny watched, jealous, as Winkle whispered that they needed him. Leslie was right. They did need him but for differing reasons. Winkle saw Sheldon as a resource and a man who would never shirk his responsibilities, someone who would throw himself between them and any danger.

Penny saw him as her whack-a-doodle PhD who needed him because…she finally admitted it…because she loved him and couldn't bear to lose him either to the plague or to his own insecurities.

Penny finally found her voice. "Sheldon Cooper, you listen to me. This is a problem just like String Theory only it's not so complicated as that. This is child's play for one of the brightest men on the planet, so get cracking on a solution. We'll head out and try to make Victorville as our first way-point."

Sheldon was so angry with himself that Winkle's placating words did little to pull him out of himself but Penny's comments played to his enormous ego and challenged it.

"Penny, take 210 to Interstate 15 and Victorville. Be careful of the abandoned vehicles and 18-wheelers especially once you hit Interstate 15. We will re-evaluate your route based on what we find there."

He turned his head away from the girls and back down to his laptop. His original plan was trash. He would need to use secondary roads to move first north and then east. There was snow in the mountains and he'd never considered the need for tire chains as recommended by the CHP for use in the passes. Another error.

'_How many more will I discover and will I discover them before or after someone dies?'_

* * *

The sixty-five minute drive to Victorville took almost 6 hours. Penny had to carefully skirt pileups and once she had to back the coach almost 4 miles to take an off-ramp and then use secondary roads to bypass them before pulling onto I15 again.

"I need to stop for a while and unclench my fingers. This is so nerve-wracking and I'm getting stiff and sore. Leslie, how about taking a turn at the wheel? It's not hard at all to drive and it would be fun under normal road conditions - WHOA!"

Several people, mostly men, were blocking the lane and if she hadn't been paying attention she would have run them over. She started to slow down and stop the bus.

Leslie was standing behind her, ready to take her place but when she saw that a couple of the guys had what looked to be rifles, she urged Penny not to dare stop. "Mow them down. They've got guns! And I don't think they want to hitch a ride, Barbie!"

"No way. I'm not going to – "

A bullet ricocheted off the steel sheeting that Sheldon had welded over the large windscreen and it was like someone flipped a switch in Penny's mind.

"Hold on. These guys are what Sheldon warned us about!" She floored the gas pedal and the big Alison Diesel roared and she blew through the line of men and on down the interstate, only slowing because of wrecks that she had to carefully drive through.

"You can stop anytime now, Penny, and I'll take over. If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you hit any of them but they'll need to change their undies for sure!"

* * *

Leslie made the leg of the trip to Barstow without any 'complications'. It was starting to get dark and Sheldon unpacked the Night Vision goggles and had Leslie pull off the Interstate and find a large parking lot. He wanted the girls to be familiar with how the NVGs worked and made each of them drive around in a nice large area until they got used to them.

Leslie stomach growled – loudly. "Hey, howsa 'bout feeding us since you haven't done anything except sit on your butt all day, Cooper?" Her tone was whimsical and light, taking any unintended hurt out of her comments. Considering everything he'd done so far, he could sit around twiddling his thumbs all day and she'd be content with it.

"I suppose this is as good a place as any to practice leveling the coach and setting up for the night. Leslie, you first, go through the shut down and start up cycles and then drive around and find a spot and let Penny have a go. I'll have your dinner prepared by that time."

He walked back through the lounge area to the galley kitchen and closed the door. He wanted privacy and it was a surprise. He'd found several frozen dinners 'for two' and was going to sacrifice two for their first meal. Hopefully, they'd be in Omaha within 36 hours. He doubted that Mrs. Flynn in 2B would have begrudged them her meals. She was one of the first to die in the building and she'd always been nice to him, giving him baked goods whenever they met at the mailboxes.

* * *

The coach suddenly lurched and then swerved to the left sending Sheldon across the galley kitchen and into the small table there. He gasped and tears filled his eyes. He'd struck his wound on the edge of the table and it really hurt.

The coach stopped and Winkle opened the sliding corrugated door and told him to 'get your ass up here, Sheldon. We have a problem!'

The 'problem' was two pickup trucks that were driving around the darken coach in circles. There were a couple of men in the back of each and they appeared to have weapons. Their intent was unclear but to Sheldon it was crystal clear. His mind processed 'worse case' scenarios and he hurried to the weapons case and took out his two surprises.

'_I should have planned better. We only have a few drums of ammunition for each. Another failure on my part.'_

"Penny, these are SAWs, squad automatic weapons." He lectured them for about 15 seconds on how to reload them and then he told them to take positions at the coach front and safety doors and to shoot anyone who wasn't him.

"What? Sheldon, where – " By the time Penny got turned around and untangled her SAW from Leslie's, Sheldon was out the back of the coach's rear safety door.

It was cold and pitch black. The only light came from the headlamps and light bars of the pickups. He could hear them shouting over the sound of the engines. They were drunk and surely planned to loot the coach.

'_Penny and Leslie would never survive such an attack and if they did, would probably hope for death. These lowlifes would abuse them and then kill them for sport. Not going to happen.'_

Sheldon had already read up on two of his purloined weapons systems and knew what to do but in his fear and excitement, he'd totally drawn a blank on how to assemble and fire the damned things.

'_Think! __**Grasp the tube in the center and pull the sealed end to the left forcefully until you hear a click. Then fold down the sight and mount the weapon on your right shoulder and sight in on the target**__. Pull the trigger when the target fills the sight aperture. Remember to lead a moving target.'_

A series of mechanical and electrical events occurred when Sheldon depressed the rubber trigger detent resulting in a flash of 1400 degree ignited gases and the discharge of the 66mm warhead from the disposable tube of the LAWS rocket launcher he'd pilfered from a National Guard armory.

For a scared-shitless beginner, he did amazingly well. He would have received an 'Outstanding' from an instructor. The warhead struck one truck in the center of the sidewall of the truck bed and exploded, sending a spray of superheated plasma and metal that killed most of the bandits outright. The secondary effect was that the gas tank erupted in a spectacular fireball and the entire truck was engulfed in flames and that took care of the rest of the gunmen in the truck.

The second truck's driver was temporarily blinded by the flash or panicked but whatever reason was good enough for Sheldon. The truck ploughed into a parked car, sending the men in the back sailing out. One was crushed when the driver backed up over him in his haste to get away. One other limped away following after the departing truck. Two others began working their way around the coach to flank Sheldon.

Penny had been using the NVGs to watch for the threat that Sheldon apparently thought he could deal with on his own. She saw the flash of the one pickup when it exploded but the flare of bright light temporarily blinded her.

"Shit! Leslie, I can't see squat now. See if you can tell what's happening. No real visibility with these plates over the windows, even with the cut-outs." She was rubbing her eyes and didn't see Winkle's smirk as she picked up the SAW and stepped down out of the coach.

Leslie had been looking forward to this. She saw the two surviving bandits, thugs, would-be rapists, whatever label applied, scuttling between parked cars and she unloaded on them with the SAW.

She was unprepared for the kick and the rate of fire. Her old boyfriend would have punched her for 'wasting ammo' and not really sighting in on her target. In her defense, the SAW was heavier then she expected and with a much greater rate-of-fire and she was 10 years older and softer than when she was banging the survivalist and playing capture the flag in the woods.

While Leslie punched holes in parked cars and then poked holes in the sky, Penny slipped out and went to check on Sheldon. She had no idea what he'd done or how, but they were safe – for the moment.

"Sheldon!" she stage-whispered. "Where the hell are you?" She was duck walking around the back of the coach to where she thought he might be. The smell of the burnt gases made her eyes water but she saw him sitting on his butt, leaning back against the rear wheels of the coach.

"I think it's safe to get out of here now, sweetie. You okay?" He was staring at the burning pickup and she thought she saw him wipe his eyes with the sleeve of his field jacket.

She sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders and he leaned into her and she knew he was crying.

"Did you hurt yourself? Are you okay?"

"Fine. Just – I killed those men. I just wanted to disable the truck and scare them. We're all just trying to survive, Penny."

"_You_ don't go out looking for survivors to rob and kill them, Shelley. That's the difference between you and them. Let's get inside and eat and then get out of here."

They climbed up into the bus and Penny secured the exit and went forward to give Sheldon some privacy. She didn't want him to be embarrassed in front of Winkle. His regret for killing those men was something to be admired, not ridiculed.

Winkle had surprisingly good luck and had wounded both their assailants. She calmly and efficiently shot eat in the head with her 9mm. _'It doesn't pay to leave a wounded enemy close by.'_

"Where's our hero?" asked Winkle when she climbed back into the coach. "It's starting to snow and maybe we need to move out and get to a more secure location before calling it a night."

Just then, Sheldon pulled aside the folding door and announced that 'dinner is served, ladies'. The microwave in the bus worked just like his at home and he had no problem nuking the double portions.

"Paper plates! I forgot paper plates and plastic utensils and…" Another error. How many more had he made but didn't realize yet?

Winkle saw the look on his face and sighed. Barbie was slacking off in her care of their resident survival specialist. He was too upset about a minor thing like plates and forks for it to be the major source of his mood.

Penny saved the day by pulling out some dishes she'd 'borrowed' from the Cheesecake Factory and utensils. She'd only stuffed them in the bag for barter but now they'd serve their intended purpose.

Winkle had the last word on the issue before they silently dug into their dinner.

"Sheldon Cooper, you can't be expected to think of every possible contingency. You did all this in 3 days. Barbie and I will scrounge for whatever you forgot. It's no big deal. What _is_ a big deal is that we're starving and the food's getting cold."


	9. Chapter 9

"Here on the level sand, between the sea and land, what shall I do or write against the fall of night?" - A. E. Housman

Without apologies:

* * *

Chapter 8

"There's a rest stop north of here. Let's plan on pulling in there and if it's unoccupied, we'll overnight there. It's been a long day and I wouldn't be the courteous host if I didn't suggest that you two open up one of Penny's bottles of wine or other spirits once we settle in. You both did a lot of driving and I think the phrase 'kick back and relax' applies."

"What about you, Sheldon?" Penny knew he was as keyed up as the rest of them and deserved whatever relaxation he could find.

"I'm going to retire to one of the Pullman berths and try to maximize my REM cycle. If the roads remain clear, I might even take a turn at the wheel tomorrow, properly supervised, of course."

"Shel, I don't think the highway patrol is giving out many tickets these days."

"I wouldn't dream of risking a hair on either of your heads by making an error. I've made enough thus far. I will drive only if properly supervised. Consider yourselves…copilots."

"Um, Sheldon, there's a large bed in the master stateroom. I won't bite ya." She didn't want to be alone and certainly didn't want to cuddle with Winkle. Besides, she didn't think it was a good thing for him to be alone tonight.

Sheldon smiled shyly. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Let's haggle over sleeping arrangements once we're certain it's safe. I'll clean this up while you two get prepped and underway."

"Aye, Captain," snarked Penny, with a big smile. She liked the idea of getting a little tipsy in this 10-wheeled boudoir that Sheldon had contrived. She could tell by the look on Leslie's face that she felt pretty much the same way.

* * *

The trio watched as the mile markers and green signboards counted down the distance to the rest stop. There were a few cars on the interstate but most were pulled over onto the breakdown lane and they only came across a few in the actual lanes. All were abandoned.

"I think there's a set of thermal goggles somewhere in the junk I took from the National Guard armory. I think we should stop just before taking the exit to the rest stop and I'll slip out and see if there are any infrared heat signatures. Easiest way to avoid people, don't you think?"

He was looking at Leslie as if seeking her approval and Penny felt a frisson of something like jealousy for an instant but dismissed it as nothing important. Winkle was the obvious candidate to do the recon but Sheldon was still playing alpha-male. Did that make Winkle his alpha-female?

"Moon Pie, I don't think – " Penny started but Sheldon held up a hand, not to rudely silence her as in 'talk to the hand' but because he wasn't finished. He hated being interrupted but didn't see anything rude when he did it.

"It makes sense for me to do it, Penny. I can't drive and you two are both tired and tense and might miss something due to fatigue."

Winkle looked at Penny and the look on her face said 'let him do it' so Penny just nodded her reluctant acceptance.

"Okay, Shel, but take something with more bang than that wimpy pistol of yours. Maybe take one of the bombs you made? You never can tell what you might run into in the dark." She shuddered at the thought of him slinking around in the dark looking for trouble and finding it.

Winkle walked back to the 'armory' area of the bus and rummaged around in the footlockers he'd used to carry the loot from the armory and came back with a nasty-looking automatic weapon.

"This is an MP-5 machine gun used by SWAT teams. It's got a 30-round magazine and fires single shot and automatic. If you see something that's a threat, Cooper, point it and unload on your target. This is how you change the magazines and this is the safety."

She finished her demonstration just as they came to the off-ramp to the rest stop. Penny pulled the big rig over to the side and started to shut down the engine but thought better of it.

"Sheldon, I'm going to back up 50 yards or so after you get out. I don't want to have to back this down the ramp if the shit hits the fan. Might panic and end up off the road. We'll be waiting for you, honey. And whatever happens, we will not leave you behind so save your breath."

* * *

It was cold and damp and the air smelled like it was going to get colder. He stuck to the cement drainage ditch that paralleled the on-ramp and flipped on the goggles and slowly panned the area looking for a heat flare of an idling engine or a human being. He could hear coyotes howling and it comforted him, bringing back memories of night hunting coon and Javelina with his Pap-paw.

'_Shelley, as long as you hear coyotes, there's nothing bigger to fear like a cougar or a black bear. Well, hasn't been a cougar around here in a hunnerd years but you get my point. WE are the biggest thing to fear.'_

Sheldon needed to pee so damned bad. It must be the body's response to stress: void the bladder to reduce infection in case of injury. He almost chuckled at how efficient the human body was at survival.

Penny and Winkle were using the NVGs but didn't see Sheldon at all but they both heard the coyotes. "Are there wolves out here, Penny? Don't see many wolves in New Jersey – well, just the two-legged kind."

"I don't know but I don't want to find out. This place is creepy in the dark. Jesus, maybe this wasn't such a great idea. He's a fucking physicist, for Christ's sake, not Rambo!"

"Let it go, Blondie. He needs to do this. He needs to boost his confidence and this is a pretty safe way to do it."

"I don't think he needs to go all Rambo on us to prove anything. He's proven himself to me more times than I can count since the Choker hit. This is totally fucking unnecess – "

* * *

Sheldon could see the bus. The thermal signature stood out like a red flare against the cooler background. He sat back on his haunches and mulled over just what to tell his two traveling companions. There were two 18-wheelers with dead drivers and a bunch of cars full of bodies. It looked like a fight had broken out over something and there were a few bodies lying in the parking area.

"It's been 30 minutes, Penny. I'm going to get suited up and go find him. It shouldn't have taken this long to – "

Both women let out startled screams when Sheldon knocked on the coach door.

"Bang, bang, bang, Penny? Bang, bang, bang, Leslie? Bang – "

Winkle opened the door and he climbed in. The outside air was damp and cold and it made her shiver.

"Well? Took ya long enough!" Penny had been scared and her irritation was caused by fear and worry.

"Pull up to the parking area and then follow the signs for the truck park in the back. Anyone there is dead and there might be some things of value left over so we need to allow time tomorrow to do a little picking."

Penny started the coach and eased it onto the ramp when Sheldon causally said, "Try not to run over any of the bodies, Penny. There's no telling what pestilence might be breeding in those corpses."

Both girls looked at each other, neither one wanting to say 'YUCK' but they were thinking it very loudly.

"Bazinga! No bodies. I dragged them out of the roadway. We'll burn them tomorrow."

* * *

"So, Penny, has our fearless leader shared a destination with you yet?" She was on her third Rum 'n Coke and feeling no pain.

"Nope. Well, he did say he was going to try to make it to Omaha but I figure that's a bust. I mean, why bother going to another dead city." She knew he had this 'mission' to get her 'home to family' but she hadn't been able to reach any of her family since the Choker hit and they'd never been that close.

"He wants you safe, dingbat. Can't you see the man loves you? I mean, it's like so obvious." She was slurring her words and there was a wistfulness in her tone.

Penny stared at Leslie for a second and then started to giggle. She was a drink ahead of Winkle and had made hers pretty strong.

"Don't laugh, Blondie. It's true and you should be damned happy he does otherwise we'd both be lying in the street dead or worse, being fucked to death by some mob of thugs. I sure as hell wouldn't kick him out of bed now. He's more of a man than I ever thought possible. Certainly more so than Leonard…and we both know his 'shortcomings', don't we?"

Penny started to tear up at the thought of Leonard. Sure, they'd had their times together but somehow he always managed to screw it up and finally she just couldn't handle his neediness and so ended it for the last time.

"Hey, I didn't mean to make you cry. I guess I meant that Leonard wouldn't have been this – resourceful – yeah, that's the word, resourceful. If it had been Leonard and not Dumbass who survived, we'd be deader than doorknobs and you know it."

"Quit calling him 'dumbass', you bitch!" Penny flared up and was fixing to go all Junior Rodeo on her ass.

"Sorry. Habit. So, if you're not going to take a turn at that, can I?" She was only half-joking. She was stressed out and sex had always been a tension reliever.

"I – I guess so. I mean if you really had to have sex I guess I – well…" She wanted to say 'hell, no' but just couldn't find the words. She loved her Moon Pie but wasn't ready to announce it to their little world. They were in a non-sexual relationship and except for that one emotional time weeks ago, been just friends without benefits. None of them needed the complications it might bring.

"Maybe we could share him?" She smiled and then giggled at the thought. Penny giggled, too, and the subject was closed when Winkle stopped and looked up at the roof of the coach.

"Rain…bet it freezes. It's cold enough." She shivered and pulled the blanket she'd wrapped herself in closer around her shoulders.

* * *

"Ladies, I turned on the hot water heater so you can each have one 2-minute shower."

They both jumped at the sound of his voice. He was standing in the galley entrance wearing sweat pants and a CalTech sweatshirt. His hair was mussed from the shower and he was barefoot. He blushed at the looks on their faces…almost hungry…and even he could see it.

"I'm turning in. The timer will shut off in 15 minutes. Please be brief since our fresh water supply is limited to 100 gallons and I don't know when we'll be able to refill our tanks."

Leslie motioned for Penny to take her shower first and watched the look on Sheldon's face when Penny smiled and then giggled conspiratorially.

"We'll talk about sharing arrangements when we're sober, okay?" She eased by Sheldon and headed to the shower.

"Don't peek, Moon Pie," she whispered and then disappeared.

* * *

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning someone whispered, "Move over. I'm cold," and eased into the narrow bunk and snuggled up against him. He fell instantly back to sleep without caring who was sharing his warmth. He was exhausted and the sound of rain drumming on the roof of the bus lulled him back to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Going back to work tomorrow and on the road. Updates may be less than daily.

* * *

Chapter 9

She jerked awake from an amazing dream of sex with Sheldon Cooper. She was curled up with her head next to his, resting on his arm and shoulder and she couldn't stop herself. She began kissing his cheek and then down his jaw line. The stubble of his beard was unexpectedly soft. He smelled clean and yet there was a musky, manly scent to him when she pushed up his sweatshirt and began kissing his nipples and chest.

He mumbled something in his sleep and she stopped, not wanting to, but not wanting to risk a loud confrontation, hoping he'd fall back to sleep.

He did, sighing and pulling her closer to him, his hands around her waist, one under the sweatshirt she'd worn to sleep, the other hand moving to cup one of her butt cheeks. His warm fingertips were making swirls on her skin of the small of her back even in sleep.

He was driving her crazy with his touch and she couldn't resist slipping one hand around his waist, the fingers dipping below the drawstring waistband of his sweat pants.

Sheldon slept commando-style! She smirked at the thought of prim and proper Sheldon Cooper allowing his stuff to just hang around. It was _so_ not Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD who lectured his friends and cohorts at the drop of the hat about proper…

His hand darted from her butt cheek to her wrist and stopped any downward movement.

"No, not like this," he whispered.

"Please, I need this. I need _you_," she whispered back and smiled at him in the darkness when his grip on her wrist weakened until it was more like a lover's caress.

He sighed and she changed tactics, moving so that her face was beside his and her arms flat on his chest. She slowly slid her palms up his chest and then cupped his face and leaned down and kissed him, sucking his lower lip between hers.

Soft. That was Sheldon's first thought. When she sucked lightly on his lip his moan surprised him. It just…happened, just like his arms wrapping themselves around her back and anchoring her to him.

Instinct and some part of his monkey brain seemed to be making the decisions for him and so he just mentally shrugged and let it do its thing. He was just along for the ride.

* * *

**This part is 'M' and is not integral to the story. I just wanted to settle some questions about this fic's direction.**

Her tongue darted against his lips like a moth tapping against a lighted window and he parted his lips and sighed as her tongue slipped in and began exploring. It wasn't as gross as he'd imagined. His own tongue began sliding around hers, a delicate ballet of sorts. Their breathing synchronized automatically as if they'd been doing this for centuries.

She purred into his mouth and wrapped an arm around his neck. He slipped his hands up under her sweatshirt and caressed her back, surprised at how her flesh seemed to heat up as he touched her.

"Take it off, baby. I'm getting too hot anyways." She broke the kiss, whispered her entreaty, and then sat up so he could pull the sweatshirt off. The cool air made her nipples contract and she grabbed his hands and put them on her breasts.

"Don't want these puppies getting cold, do we? It's okay to touch them, just don't squish them, baby."

Her breasts seemed made for his hands. They fit perfectly and he toyed with her hard nubs and smiled his secret smiled when she gasped and then purred again.

She leaned up and whispered, "Take off your sweatshirt. I want to feel your skin on mine." He nodded and pulled off his sweatshirt. He was glad it was dark. He was embarrassed.

They kissed and touched each other and Sheldon soon got over any concerns about his body. Her whispered comments, suggestions and moans canceled out any inhibitions he's developed over the years. He liked being touched by her and touching her in return.

He stiffened when she palmed his erection through his sweatpants and she giggled and whispered that he needed to 'lose the pants, Dr. Cooper'.

"Wait, I – " He was uncertain just what to do. "No, no more waiting. I've loved you as a friend for years and now I love you as a man, Sheldon, _my_ man. I do, Shel, I do so love you so much."

It flipped a switch in his brain, turning off any social awkwardness he felt about his current situation. Sure, he'd researched coitus and it's related activities but to actually…

She pulled off his sweatpants and then her own and straddled him, reaching down and guiding his erection to her folds.

"Oh, God in heaven," he muttered when she lowered herself slowly down onto him. She waited a few seconds for her muscles to adjust to his girth and then was surprised when he flipped her over onto her back, still encased in her hot flesh.

He pulled out until just the head of his cock was in her vagina, and then he very slowly began the ancient ritual of coitus. His strokes were slow and lethargic and she shuddered as the crown of his mushroom-like cock head teased her g-spot.

"Oh, God, Sheldon, you're killing me here," she mumbled into his neck. She felt him chuckle and for a second wondered if his remonstrations regarding his virginity were just so much bullshit. He was torturing her and no virgin could possibly –

Sheldon was doing differential calculus in his head, determined to make their first time last but he could feel the tension building and his strokes became deeper and faster.

"Wait, Sheldon. Let me just – " She pulled her legs up as far as she could and wrapped them around him and locked her ankles together. She whispered that she loved him and then began meeting his thrusts with her own.

"I'm so close, baby. Harder and faster and – " Her orgasm was building and she felt him suddenly stiffen and his breath grow raggedy. She squeezed down on him with her muscles and her own climax took her.

* * *

**End 'M'. **

Sheldon was hot and sweaty and sticky and the happiest he'd ever been in his life. Someone loved him. _She_ loved him.

She felt him slip out of her and she wriggled around until she was facing him on her side. He leaned in and kissed her gently and she felt his smile.

"I love you too, Penny."

It was almost sunrise but the rain continued and Sheldon fired up the electric water heater and led Penny back to the shower.

"Under the circumstances, I think we can waive the two minute rule, Penny."

* * *

Winkle was still asleep when Sheldon cooked up breakfast of instant oatmeal and microwave sausage for the three of them.

"Leslie, wake up and eat something. Sheldon says we have a big day ahead of us."

Winkle forced open one eye and saw Penny, dressed in sweats and tennis shoes, holding a cup of hot coffee and a plate of something that smelled wonderful.

"Okay. Let me hit the little girl's room and I'll be right with ya. Thanks for the coffee."

* * *

After breakfast, Sheldon decided to go out to check on the propane levels in the tanks. The generator had run all night and he was concerned about their propane consumption given the cold weather.

He tried to open the rear door but it wouldn't budge. Sheldon opened the latch and then shoved against the door with his shoulder and it popped open unexpectedly and he fell out of the coach onto the ice-covered parking lot.

* * *

"You two don't have to feel guilty about showing affection around me, Penny. It's obvious that you two have 'sealed the deal' and I'm glad for you. Both of you."

Penny blushed and asked, "How did you know?" She didn't think she'd behaved any differently towards Sheldon at breakfast.

"First, I'm not deaf and those moans and the muffled scream you let out would have awakened me even if I'd been asleep. And then there's the way he hasn't taken his eyes off you for more than a few seconds. And you seemed to be much more touchy-feely than normal and he hasn't rushed to the lavatory to wash his hands."

"Um, well, yeah. But I don't want this to be a problem for us, Leslie."

"Won't be. You did promise to share him, remember?" She liked Penny and if she found happiness with Sheldon the Germaphobe, so be it. She was teasing about sharing. He definitely wouldn't share.

Penny's eyes narrowed and she growled deep in her throat and Winkle laughed and hugged her. "Just teasing. He's not my type. Now you, on the other hand…"

"Are you saying you're – "

"God, Blondie, you're so easy…" She laughed and walked up to the front of the coach to check things out. She was happy for them. She was. Really.

* * *

Sheldon picked himself up off the ice and carefully walked around to the propane tank storage. The gauges were ice coated and it took him a few minutes to chip the ice off with the butt of his pocket knife.

He ran some computations off in his head and sighed. He had badly underestimated how much propane they'd need. If consumption remained as it was, they'd run out in a week, perhaps less.

Sheldon walked around the coach to see if there was any damage when he noticed that there was a storage building out near the septic tank area and decided to check it out. He climbed back up into the coach for a pistol and warmer clothes.

Winkle was just stepping out of the lavatory when he shrugged on his army field jacket and his pistol belt. She smiled at him and raised an eyebrow as if asking 'where are you going'.

"I saw a storage building out behind the parking area and I want to check it out. I won't be but a few minutes."

"Why the pistol, Cooper? Expecting trouble?" She wanted to ask him to take her along just in case.

"Coyotes. Didn't you hear them last night? Besides, this isn't the university parking lot, Les. If you get dressed warmly, I'd like the company."

Penny watched her friends walk across the parking lot. She'd started to get ready to go but Sheldon stopped her.

"Penny, I want someone in the coach at all times, just in case someone shows up unexpectedly. If we run into trouble, fire it up and – "

"No! No, I won't leave you guys behind!"

"I was going to say, come get us. Get dressed warmly just in case, okay. We're not in Pasadena any more. We have to assume the worst case scenario every time we venture out like this."

* * *

Leslie shot the huge padlock off the door and threw it open and covered Sheldon when he went inside. It was dark and the only light was from a frosted skylight in the ceiling.

There were shelves of cleaning and toilet supplies for the restrooms and a small stash of canned Spam, sardines and a few boxes of crackers. Someone liked his snacks old-style.

Leslie found two canisters of propane and together they managed to lug their loot back to the horse trailer. Sheldon lashed the propane tanks in line with the others and then secured the trailer door. Winkle had already walked back to the coach.

* * *

"Got any gasoline you can spare? I'll pay you for it or trade some – "

Sheldon whirled around at the sound of a man's voice not 10 feet away from him. He had his pistol out and leveled at the stranger who was dressed in heavy motorcycle leathers and still wore his helmet with a tinted visor.

"Where did you come from? I could have shot you! You don't sneak up on people like that!"

The muffled voice chuckled. "I didn't sneak up on you. I've been watching you for a while, deciding on whether or not I could trust you. My tryke's out of gas and I pushed it up here for the night. My tent's just on the other side of the restrooms."

"How much do you need? Money's no good. What do you have to trade?"

"Got some canned goods. I'll trade you all of it except for the peaches for a full tank of gas. I'm trying to get back to my folks' place up north. Haven't heard from them in a few weeks."

"I'll take a few cans and fill up your tank. We have enough and we drained a few tanks in Barstow. Ran into some looters who wanted to – "

"That was you guys? I saw the burning truck and checked out the few cars that were still intact. No gas. Um, are you guys military?"

"Is there a problem here, Sheldon?" Leslie had walked out to check on what was taking Sheldon so long and she'd heard another man's voice and gone back in and now held the MP-5 aimed at their 'visitor'.

"No. We're just doing a little 'horse trading'. He needs gas for his bike and we're getting a few canned goods in trade, that's all."

The stranger pulled off his helmet and smiled at Leslie. "I'm Hideki Tanaka, former pilot in the US Air Force now medically retired, ma'am, and I'd appreciate it if you'd point that thing in some other direction."

* * *

Sheldon grabbed a 10-gallon plastic gas can and walked with Tanaka back to his bike. "Medically retired? You look to be my age if not less."

"Diabetes. Threw my ass out."

"What are you doing for insulin, Hideki?" His Pap Paw had had diabetes and needed daily doses of insulin.

"Scrounging. I've got a couple of weeks' worth but it won't keep long without refrigeration. After that, I'm screwed." It explained why he wouldn't part with the canned peaches.

Sheldon made a 'command decision'.

"Come with us. You can put your bike in our trailer and we'll put your insulin in our refrigerator. We're going to need to stop at every small town between here and Omaha, so we'll help you scrounge for insulin or its substitutes. You'll have to figure out a dietary plan and we'll scrounge for you as well. Deal?"

"You two married?" He meant Leslie Winkle. Penny was sitting in the coach, holding a pistol and wishing her Moon Pie was back where he belonged.

"Lord, no. We barely speak to each other. We were colleagues but hardly friends."

"And yet – here you are."

"Deal or not? I'll give you the gas for free if you want to go it alone."

"I'm in."

And that's how Sheldon solved more problems than he knew about.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry for the brevity but I'm working and driving between locations. Free lancing is a bugger. [My new year's resolution is to quit cussing unless it's about the former roommate, aka asshole of all eternity].

* * *

Hideki and Sheldon muscled the trike into the trailer and then went back to the coach.

"Leslie and I were colleagues at CalTech. Penny was my neighbor and she moved in with me when the Choker got really bad. We all got together and took off when L.A. caught fire and the power died. Penny's folks have a huge farm and ranch in Omaha and that's where we're headed."

"Uh, Doc, you might want to rethink Omaha. It's gone. So are Atlanta and Dallas and Houston and a lot of other cities. I was getting some VA work done when it came in over the network. Terrorists or anarchists or just plain crazies set off huge dirty bombs a few days ago. No one knows who but…they also bombed several nuclear power stations. East is out. North is pretty clear up to Chicago. Frisco, Sacramento, Seattle are pretty ugly so I'm heading for the U.P."

"Damn it! I didn't think to incorporate a Geiger counter in our kit. We could be sitting here in the drift zone and getting more röntgens than is prudent. Crap, we're proably sitting in the midst of a Balck Rain. We need to see what the winds from the west coast are like and map out a safe route north."

He stopped and looked at Hideki and said, "Don't say anything to Penny about Omaha. Her folks live there."

"Sure, Doc. But she's going to find out soon enough."

"True, but I feel obligated to tell her."

* * *

Introductions were made and while Penny showed Hideki where to put his gear in available drawer space, Sheldon motioned for Leslie to follow him back to the master stateroom.

"Okay, what's the problem, Sheldon?"

"Black rain. Hideki says that there have been dirty bomb attacks in major cities and sabotage of nuclear power plants. I forgot to include radiation gear or – "

"Stop it. You couldn't possibly have anticipated this kind of event. We'll improvise but first we need to decide where to go and how to get there. Omaha - "

"Is gone. I'll tell Penny. Hideki says there's a national guard air base in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan that was still operational as of three days ago. He's flown in and out of there a few times. Once we map out a safe route, I think we should head that way but it's got to be a group decision."

"Let's talk about it over lunch. You need to tell Blondie before our passenger lets something slip."

* * *

Penny was looking over the food situation in the galley and Sheldon walked up behind her and put his arms around her and whispered, "Penny, we need to talk." She pulled his arms away and turned to face him, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"It's not that, Penny. I love you and I want to keep you safe. Let's go back to the master stateroom where we'll have privacy."

"No! We'll talk here and now, Sheldon Cooper. Last night was not a mistake. I love – "

"Omaha is gone, Penny. So are many other major cities in the country. Dirty bomb attacks and sabotage of nuclear power plants. I'm sorry, Penny, but Omaha is not an option any longer."

"My parents? My sister? All my friends? They're all dead, aren't they? Oh, my God…" She hugged him and buried her face in his chest and began to cry. He 'walked' her back to the master stateroom and sat with her on the unmade bed and just held her. He had no idea how she was feeling and he felt so inadequate.

"I think…I think I've known deep down that they were gone, Shel. I love you for wanting to get me home but I belong with you now and that's the end of it. We're not married or anything but where you go, I go. Forever and ever. I don't care where we end up so long as we're together. You're all I've got left, Shelley, and I can't lose you too."

* * *

"So, a pilot, huh? Jets?" Winkle wanted to delay heating up the MRE packets until Sheldon and Penny came back so she was asking questions.

"Nope, trash hauler. Um, cargo planes, multiengine, big-assed birds capable of carrying people or equipment. Just got command pilot status when I failed my physical. Six years of kissing ass and when I get where I want to be…this happens."

"Shit happens with extraordinary regularity, doesn't it? Try being a woman in a man's field. It's dog eat dog and no quarter given."

"Yeah, Doc said you and he were less than friends so how did you end up together?" He liked this woman who was a few years older than him. She was blunt and not some politically correct egghead.

"Fate. I was trying to hook up with his roommate when people started murdering each other and ended up with him and Barbie. We meshed right away although I still slip and call him Doctor Dumbass or just dumbass occasionally. This is all his doing. One day he's this incredibly irritating asshole who reads comic books and plays video games and the next, he's fucking McGuyver on steroids."

"He seems pretty sharp and quick on the uptake."

"He's unquestionably one of the smartest men on the planet…people, I mean. He's got an enormous ego but somehow that's gone. We've all changed."

She told him what she'd planned to bring on the 'expedition' and what he'd done and her reaction in the garage. Hideki laughed and asked more questions and finally got around to asking, "So the doc and the blonde are a couple?"

"Yeah, finally. Let me tell you, those two are the least likely pair of lovers I've ever seen but somehow it all makes sense. She's street smart and he's book smart. Together, they're a devastating pair. Let me tell you about paintball…"

* * *

Sheldon covered Penny with a blanket and slipped out of the bedroom. She'd cried herself to sleep and he figured sleep would be the best thing for her.

"Okay, Penny won't be joining us for lunch. She's sleeping. Hideki, tell us more about this place you're trying to reach…"

"Ah, Doc…no one calls me 'Hideki' except my folks. I go by my callsign, 'Bomber'. I got tagged with it in Afghanistan. Dropped some cargo 'accidentally' on a Taliban position. It was just a couple of pallets of corrugated tin but it made them scoot back across the border to Pakistan."

"Did you miss them?" asked Winkle.

"Hard to miss them from 300 feet." Sheldon wheezed a laugh while he figured out the trajectory and effect and Winkle giggled like a school girl.

"Let's talk about Michigan."

* * *

Sheldon walked back to the master stateroom to check on Penny. He thought she was still asleep but when he pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, she whispered, "Hi, honey. I need to get up. What time is it?"

"Almost five and you missed lunch. Do you feel well enough to eat or would you rather sleep some more? I'm not sure what the protocol is for this kind of situation, Penny, except to tell you that I want us to be together, too."

"Well, I think you should follow the time-honored social protocol of awakening me with a kiss. And then, oh, Hid – I forgot his name. He must think I'm a real drama queen, Sheldon."

"He goes by his pilot callsign, Bomber. Winkle is plotting on dragging him into her lair and I almost want to warn him but then again, look how well we turned out."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down beside her. He was off balance and it was easy for her to do so. "Now, about that kiss…"


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks for all the reviews and favs. Hope you're enjoying the ride through my daydreams. I have no beta. Like a great writer once snarked in another FF genre, 'you don't get someone to read this crap for ya, do ya?'

Reparata

* * *

Chapter 12

It was still dark and cold but the rain had stopped and he woke up and untangled himself from Penny and eased out of bed, kissing her hair and vowing to find a shower facility so she could leisurely wash her hair more thoroughly. He missed the scent of her conditioner. Sheldon made coffee, poured himself a cup and slipped out of the coach to greet the day and to think.

Bomber was asleep on the couch, buried in blankets and Sheldon almost laughed out loud imagining Winkle's frustration at not being able to lure her into her lair and then have her way with him. A thought skittered across his mind and he did chuff a laugh: it would be ironic if Bomber were gay.

Sheldon sat at a picnic bench on a section he'd cleared the ice and snow from. He liked the silence of this place. He could hear nothing that hinted at civilization and somehow that seemed appropriate to his mood. He was slowly becoming addicted to coffee as an excuse for his mental absences from any group conversations while he turned his mind inward.

Based on Bomber's information, they'd decided to go to Las Vegas after all and then continue north to Salt Lake City and the east on I70 until they hit the outskirts of Denver. They would spend as much time as possible on the road but take one day in three to scrounge and search for fuel. Sticking to the interstates would hopefully provide a steady supply of diesel fuel from abandoned 18-wheelers.

Penny had suggested that they might find more 'loot' in smaller towns since anyone traveling the interstates would have already gone through the towns on the interstate routes and pickings might be slim.

"Small towns well off the interstate are more likely to have escaped looters or refugees and we might even find pharmacies and boost Bomber's insulin supply."

The suggestion was batted around and approved. Sheldon smiled at Penny's excitement of going 'off road' to seek out new stores and items for their larder. Bomber had looked away when Penny talked about how important it was to find more insulin, obviously touched by his new friends' concerns.

* * *

"Sheldon, is something wrong?" He'd watched Winkle's careful journey from the coach to the picnic area, a cup of hot coffee in her hand and trying not to slip. She sat down beside him, almost indecently close.

"Chill, dumbass. I'm not trying to get into your shorts, just don't want to plant my ass in snow. Seriously, Shel, why aren't you inside where it's warm? Have you realized something terrible and come out here to ponder a solution, oh great wise man?"

"Sarcasm, Leslie?" He was never sure about some of her rhetoric. Sometimes he thought she just liked to hear her own voice.

"Maybe a little, Sheldon, but more like humor but I know it's too early for it. Why the isolation? Even the Buddha would have meditated inside where it's warm."

"Just enjoying the quiet and my morning coffee. Penny's still asleep and…and I was just mentally preparing a scrounge list for you two. Cinnamon, Leslie, can help reduce a diabetic's dependence on insulin. Won't eliminate it but a daily dose helps control the blood sugar levels. We need to find some."

She sipped her coffee and wondered if he had always been this nice, caring fellow and just never showed it or if the plague had made him more human. Either way, she kind of liked the new Sheldon. He was much easier to deal with except for those monumental funks brought on by something he 'forgot' or didn't consider in their flight planning.

"Warmer clothes for sure. Blankets and maybe sleeping bags. I was thinking that Penny and I could use the 4-wheelers to conduct our foraging. Be easier than driving the bus all over town and would conserve diesel fuel," said Winkle.

"They're loud and until we work out some kind of routine for security, I wouldn't want either of you risking your lives for blankets or skittles, y'know?"

"I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but since you took the stick out of your ass, you're almost…nice. Too bad it took the end of the world to do it, Shel. But I'm glad you're here with me, us, I mean. And the way you took in the flyboy without a single hesitation…you might even be a human being under all the crap you've layered yourself with."

"Don't push it, ya frizzy-headed Loopist. I still think you wasted your time – "

"Oh, just when I think you're…you start up with your idiotic String Theory. Jesus, dumbass, Loop integrates relativity and – "

"Coffee's getting cold, Winkle, just like you ideas about Loop Theory. Let's agree to disagree and I'll continue theorizing and you can continue to waste a wonderful mind on groundless theories."

'Wonderful mind' took the wind from her anger sails and she abruptly looped her arm through his and leaned her parka-covered head against his shoulder.

"Okay. Deal. Let's get back. The others might think we're engaging in sweaty coitus in the supply shed."

Sheldon just shook his head and marveled at how Winkle's sex drive and uninhibited innuendo never seemed to be too far beneath the surface.

"There's a heater in the shed, Leslie. We could always – "

She stopped and gaped at him, wondering if for just one second he was being serious. He had a strange look on his face and when he slowly licked his lips she felt a flush of heat sweep over her.

"Bazinga, Leslie. You're so easy sometimes."

* * *

Penny was still asleep but she needed to be up so he awakened her according to the newly established social protocol of 'the kiss'. He'd forgotten, however, about his cold hands and when he ran a palm up the back of her naked thigh she almost ruptured his eardrum with her shriek.

"COLD HANDS DO NOT BELONG ON MY THIGH, SHELDON!"

In the galley, Winkle laughed out loud and then muttered, "I should be so lucky."

Bomber looked elsewhere, already figuring that there might be the littlest bit of unresolved sexual tension lurking in the woman seated across from him. Women were never high on his list of priorities.

Sure, he had his dates and overnights and once he had a 'friend with benefits' but never anything remotely serious. He flew. It was his life. It had been his life. Until now.

"Sometimes those two are so…normal." Again he thought he heard something implied but chose to ignore it. If the Doc and Penny were happy, who was he to pass judgment? If he didn't figure out some way to handle his disease, he'd be dead in 3 months, 6 months, tops.

Winkle looked over at the man sitting across from her and began unconsciously categorizing him by passing his known qualities and behaviors through 'Winkle's Checklist of Potential Partners' and computing a ranking.

Leonard had been a 41. Wolowitz had ranked a 60 until he started getting serious and then he plunged down the rankings to a questionable 30. Sheldon Cooper had been an 80 when she first met him. One bitter confrontation regarding her purpose in life (a housewife and mother) versus her career (not worth mentioning according to Dr. Dumbass) and he plummeted down to the low teens.

Bomber was in the 60s. She had insufficient data to render a rank higher or lower at the moment. Besides, she had all the time in the world to figure things out.

"More juice, Bomber?" She'd found some orange juice and hoped it would be acceptable. She poured another glass for him and asked the obvious question.

"Leave anyone special behind?" She watched his face for signs of deception but he just laughed at her questions.

"Nope. Had a lady but she got promoted and transferred overseas a year ago. No one special or long term since then. How about you?"

"Nothing permanent. I haven't found the right man to meet my requirements. Um, that's not exactly what I mean. It's more like no one can measure up to what I want."

* * *

They bypassed Las Vegas and followed Penny's suggestion that 'off the beaten path' might prove more productive and less hazardous.

Sheldon had them stop near a restaurant and he and Leslie went in, armed of course, and emerged, both smiling broadly. They climbed back into the coach and Winkle said they should head north and continue for a few exits until the surroundings looked deserted.

"Cooper scored a phone book and Yellow Pages and now all we have to do is let our fingers do the walking when we get to the next few small towns."

* * *

Sibleysburg, NV [Population 635]

Sheldon consulted his downloaded atlas and gestured for Leslie to pull into a Flying A filling station. There were 4 bodies lying in the main street, the only major street, as a matter of fact. That seemed to suggest that either the population had either succumbed to the Choker or abandoned the town for someplace else.

Bomber and Penny eased out of the coach and Penny covered Boomer with a shotgun while he checked out the filling station office and two service bays. The both disappeared inside and Sheldon stood on the lowest step of the coach and watched them. Winkle had already gone out the back door and was watching for anyone who might be sneaking up on them. It was the plan for all such stops.

Sheldon smiled when he saw the office lights come on. That meant that there was power to the pumps and if there was a diesel tank, they could top off their fuel tanks and auxiliary storage drums.

Bomber and Penny came out carrying full trash bags while Sheldon and Winkle began the fuel transfer. Sheldon had rigged up a hose and pump to 'lift' the fuel to the drums on the roof. It wasn't the best way to do it but he hadn't considered the length of the pump hoses being too short to reach the tanks on the roof.

They managed to fill one drum. The station's diesel tank was empty now but they'd gained another 440 miles on their auxiliary tanks after topping of the internal tank. All in all, they could expect to cover 1,000 miles before running dry.

The team piled back into the coach and Penny took over the driving while Sheldon and Leslie went back and got cleaned up. Penny mentally added 'waterproof gloves' to her scrounging list. Their gloves were now ruined because of leaks in the hoses and she was selfish. She liked his soft hands on her bits.

Small-town Penny knew there were only two major sources of swag in small towns: the local feed & grain and the local church. The feed store typically carried farm work gear while the church stockpiled donations for distribution to needy folks.

* * *

Barnette's Feed & Grain  
Sibleysburg, NV

The girls had their shopping lists and after Bomber made a quick check for any signs of habitation, they started gathering items. Penny honed in on boots and gloves. She had all their sizes and wanted several pairs of rubber-coated or leather gloves for all of them.

Penny found some cute Olathe waterproof boots with pink uppers and she fell in love with them and dumped them into her shopping cart. She was in the middle of a shoe-lovers' fantasy when Leslie screamed and called for help and then started screaming really loudly.

Penny ran through the rows of aluminum display shelves and saw Leslie on the ground, being beaten and bitten by a crazy woman she could smell yards away. She took a deep breath and shot the woman in the head and then pushed her off Leslie with a foot, not wanting to touch the filthy carcass.

Bomber was beside Leslie in an instant and scooped her up and carried her bridal-style back to the coach with Penny covering them with her 9mm pistol. She hadn't given her actions a second thought but now she was beginning to 'feel' her natural sympathy for people.

'_What kind of person am I becoming? That poor creature was someone's grandmother and mother and wife and – '_

Sheldon took one look at Penny and plucked the cocked automatic pistol from her hands and safed it and then wrapped her in his arms murmuring his standard 'there, there, Penny, Sheldon's here'. She pushed him away a few seconds later and said, "thanks, Shel, but I need to check on Winkle."

* * *

Winkle had bites on her fingers and one of her fingers was obviously broken. She'd shoved her fingers into the woman's face, aiming for the eyes but had been bitten badly.

Penny cleaned up the bites and put antiseptic ointment on them and then suddenly shouted, "Look, out there!" When Winkle tried to look out the window, Penny reset her finger. Leslie whimpered in pain and then shot Penny a 'Die, Bitch' look but it soon softened. Sheldon smiled and patted Penny's back in appreciation of her deception.

"I'm going to find something to splint it. You'll be good as new in no time. Unless we find some mittens, Les, you're our official coach guard. You won't be able to wear a glove."

Sheldon and Penny finished scrounging for boots and gloves but couldn't find any mittens. Penny picked up a couple of pairs of cute boots for her and Leslie, real girly, while grabbing two pairs of Durango's for each of the guys. The Fatboys would be her surprise for Leslie. The heavy farm boots for the guys were plain and utilitarian.

Penny found exactly the gloves they'd need and she emptied the rack of all of them. She had a feeling that they might join up with others eventually and these might come in handy. If not, they could be used for barter.

"Sheldon, let's eat something before we hit the churches, okay? I think we need to figure out better security for our scrounge teams. We need to start putting Halo tactics into our operations, don't you think?"

Once again he smirked at his foresight. He wasn't above enjoying the proof of his logic. Penny had street smarts and was a natural leader. He'd follow her anywhere – especially in her tight jeans.

They skirted the aisle where the old woman's body laid but Penny insisted on wrapping it in a tarp and 'showing some respect'. Sheldon didn't like the idea of touching the body but followed her lead.

They were almost at the double glass doors of the feed store. Sheldon told Penny, "wait a second. There's something I have to do." She looked up at him with a question in her eyes but his soft kiss answered her.

"You need to be more careful, my Queen. I can't lose you." She recognized his fierce hug for what it was: fear of losing her. His words said 'I love you' more than anything else.

"I love you too, Moon Pie."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12Rev

After a quick lunch and over Leslie's loud and strenuous objections, Penny drove the coach to the nearest church but it had burned to the ground. Checking the yellow pages, they headed for the last church on the northern most outskirts of the small town of Sibleysburg.

Sheldon saw a small sign on the side of the road beside a large chain link fence. They'd have to check it out after the church.

The small nondenominational church had been looted and there was nothing remaining except some women's and children's clothing. The food storage area had been picked clean.

"Okay, let's grab the clothing and head out. I saw a sign for a national guard facility back towards town. Let's check it out and then get back on the road," said Sheldon, already thinking of what they might need for the remainder of their journey.

Winkle was not in the best of moods. She felt marginalized because of her injured hand and took it out on Sheldon.

"Look, dumbass, it's stupid to leave me alone in the bus while you guys go out and about. Suppose someone had strolled up and tried to force the door or something? Suppose you guys ran into trouble and needed backup? You need to start think – "

Sheldon threw her his 9mm and smirked when she fumbled with it. Penny just glared at Leslie for calling him a 'dumbass' and Bomber just walked back to the galley area not wanting to get involved in a family feud.

"Winkle, you can't hold the pistol in your injured hand and you can't even jack a round into the chamber. That's why we left you the shotgun – but we do need to change our tactics considering you're pretty much out of action for – "

"I can still drive and I can still shoot a pistol if someone preps it for me, Cooper!"

"Okay. Change magazines and you're back on scrounge duty." He tried not to smile as he watched her try to do left handed what she'd been easily able to do with her right. It obviously hurt her to use her right hand.

Winkle hung her head and sighed. She absolutely hated it when he was right. She would be a liability if things got dicey on a scrounge.

* * *

Bomber used a large rock to break the lock that secured the double gates blocking the road that led to the National Guard buildings and waved the coach through. Winkle was driving, a sop to her bruised ego.

Sadly, the arms room had been cleaned out and there was nothing of any value except some old-style NBC suits that were probably useless. They did find some old walkie-talkies and batteries so it wasn't a total bust.

Penny jogged back from the motor pool area with a huge grin on her face.

"Trucks! And storage tanks of diesel fuel. We can 'borrow' a truck and load it with fuel barrels and get back on the interstate and really cover some distance."

They decided to spend the night at the armory. There was a great deal of discussion about taking on an additional vehicle.

"I don't want to split us up. What happens if we run into trouble? The trucks aren't armored or protected and loaded with fuel, the driver would be a sitting duck. It's a great idea, Penny, but it would mean – "

"We could put steel over the doors and engine and somehow protect the barrels. If two of us were in the cab, one could drive while the other used a SAW or the MP-3. Ten barrels would give us another 3,000 miles, Sheldon!"

"The truck runs on air? Only half of that but…who can drive a big thing like that? It's not like this coach. I don't think they have automatic transmissions, Winkle."

Sheldon was wavering, looking for reasons not to split up the group. He was really afraid that the scenario he described might occur and he'd lose two friends or worse, they'd all be killed because no one would leave anyone behind.

Penny finally ended it with "Sheldon, we need to do this. It'll extend our range. I know you worry about us but honestly, Moon Pie, it's the logical thing to do. The needs of the many and all that Spockish stuff, remember?"

Sheldon's mouth dropped open and Penny leaned over and put a fingertip on his chin and pushed it shut and then laid a smooch on him. "I watched so much Star Trek over the years that something just stuck in my pretty little blonde head, baby."

They spent the night parked in the motor pool area after Bomber walked down and closed the gates. There was no sense advertising their presence even at night.

Penny crawled in bed with Sheldon after taking a quick shower. She reached around and slung a hand over his stomach and snuggled in against him.

"Shel, we need to check your dressing in the morning. You haven't changed it and it's sticky." Sheldon said, "Yes, dear," and then kissed her goodnight. They were both too tired for much else. Penny giggled softly and then closed her eyes and sleep overtook the both of them quickly.

* * *

It took the team until noon to fill and load the barrels of diesel fuel onto the 'deuce and a half' meanin ton truck. They found one with a lift gate that made the task much easier.

They broke for lunch and Bomber came back with news of another discovery behind the POL dump.

"Guys, I found the ammo point. It's a conex container buried in the ground to minimize exposure to lightning and also to hide it. It's still locked so chances are whoever cleaned out the arms room overlooked ammunition storage."

They found crates of hand grenades and boxes of loose 9mm and 5.56mm ammo that could be used in their pistols and the two SAWs. It was very good news. Penny dug around the back where the crates made moving around tight. She was small enough to get into spaces the others couldn't.

"What are claymores?"

Winkle was in her glory. She loved guns and things that went 'BOOM' and so the discovery of grenades and claymores set her to planning their distribution and usage. Sheldon was more concerned about keeping her 'BOOM' things far apart from each other – especially the blasting caps that detonated the claymores.

"We'll put these caps in the refrigerator, Sheldon, and the rest of the stuff we'll integrate into our current stores. Everything goes into the small stateroom except for the loose ammo. That we'll load into the SAW magazine boxes and the empty 9mm clips Bomber found. It'll keep you three busy while I drive."

Sheldon realized that because he didn't drive, Penny would be in the fuel truck with Bomber or Winkle and he didn't like the idea of them being separated, even for one brief shift. He insisted that he be paired with Penny when she drove. Penny thought it was sweet because she knew that once Sheldon Cooper made a commitment, nothing changed his mind and he loved her so it wasn't jealousy.

He loved her and that meant he trusted her implicitly. His little hissy fit about being separated underscored it. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze and then Winkle announced that she was driving the first leg in the coach and that 'Penny and her pet physicist' could take the Army truck and freeze their asses off.

The little convoy backtracked through town and Sheldon suddenly told Penny to pull into the Feed & Grain store. He hopped out of the truck before it was stopped and loped into the store, his long legs taking him inside before Penny could even get out of the truck.

The coach had stopped up the road a ways and Winkle was on the radio demanding to know what the 'Dumbass' was up to.

"He shouldn't just stop like that, Penny. What if I hadn't seen you turn off? We could be a mile a way by now."

Sheldon came loping back out of the store, a large box of plastic trash bags in one hand and a full one in the other. He tossed the box into the truck and climbed in, wincing when he felt the stitches in his side pull when he used his arm to pull himself up into the cab.

"Shel, Winkle's on a tear about 'convoy integrity'. Here, calm her down or Bomber might just jump ship. You know how she gets." Penny handed him the walkie-talkie and pulled back onto the road.

"Leslie, stay where you are. I brought you a present."

Winkle stared at the radio and wondered if maybe the Choker had mutated into the Idiot. "Damned Dumbass always has to do things his way. He probably got me a muzzle, knowing how he thinks."

"You're too hard on the Doc, Les. He just wants things to be safe. Nothing wrong with that." Bomber was a mediator by nature. He rarely got into fights because he could always handle any situation using his wits and negotiating skills. They'd be sorely tested by Winkle, though.

Penny pulled up beside the coach and Sheldon hopped out and ran around and got in the coach. "Here. Not exactly mittens but they'll keep your injured hand warm. Don't thank me, Leslie Winkle. You might break something else."

He handed her a bag of oven mittens he'd seen earlier but hadn't figured they'd need. He emptied the entire rack. What she didn't need or want they could always use for barter down the road.

He climbed back into the Army truck and made a 'let's go' motion with his hand. He turned his head so Penny couldn't see his smile.

Winkle sat back in the coach, speechless. Just when she thought she had Cooper figured out he did something that made her head spin and confuse her. Mittens. He brought her mittens.

Bomber just laughed and told her to get on the road and catch up with the blonde who was already several hundred yards ahead of them. "Y'know, guys like the Doc…you'll never be able to pigeon-hole them. They don't think like normal people."

They passed through St. George and Cedar City in Utah. Both places were deserted and the Interstate had quite a few traffic snarls where people had just abandoned their vehicles in the road and disappeared. There were very few bodies within the vehicles and the roadside rest stops had all been picked clean of anything of value. Every trailer had been looted and the road was littered with things that were valuable a year ago but were worthless now.

They stopped outside Provo and spent the night.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13Plague

Interstate breakdown lane  
Just south of Provo, UT

Sheldon stepped out of the coach and walked around to the front and sat on the bumper and sipped his morning coffee. The sounds of multiple metallic clanks and clicks brought his mind to the present.

A group of men and women in US Army battle dress stood arrayed around the front of the coach. "I don't have enough coffee for all of you." It was the first thought he had and it seemed to reduce the tension in those pointing rifles at him.

"That's fine, sir, because Mormons do not drink coffee."

"Either did I until I found it comforting to begin my day planning our actions while drinking a hot beverage." He sighed and cursed himself for not listening to Leslie about setting a watch in shifts. His stubbornness was going to get them all killed or worse.

"I am Dr. Sheldon Cooper and if you are here to confiscate our property and leave us along the side of the road to freeze or starve, I would much appreciate it if you just murdered us and went on about your business."

A uniformed woman walked up from behind the coach and reported that there was a Nevada National Guard truck loaded with fuel drums and a horse trailer that was locked but didn't seem to contain horses.

Leslie chose that moment to kick open the coach door and step out and slam the door with her hip. She carefully balanced her coffee cup and walked around the front of the coach. She was wearing a pink oven mitten just to break the monotony.

"Morning, Sheldon. I still say it's too cold for this damned ritual of ours." It was a ritual. They drank their morning coffee together and talked quietly about issues that confronted them and what to do about them. Leslie actually looked forward to these mornings.

Sheldon set his coffee on the bumper of the coach and chided Winkle. "Leslie, you're going to catch your death of cold if you don't start zipping up before you come out. Hold still."

There was an impatient tone in his voice as he fumbled with her zipper, reached inside her jacket and pulled out her 9mm pistol. The eight or nine grouped around them seemed to have relaxed so when Sheldon pushed Winkle behind him and pointed the pistol at the leader standing just feet away, there were cries of 'Pistol!' and he knew he was going to die.

"Now, unless you brigands wish to have an immediate change in your leadership structure, I would suggest you walk away. I will release your leader unharmed when I see the last of you walking up the road."

Penny and Bomber were watching from inside and Bomber slipped out the back with one of the SAWs and ambled up beside the coach until he was flanking the group that Sheldon was confronting.

_'Nine to two…not bad odds. Winkle's a liability though. Sheldon will shield her with his body and…_'

Leslie reached into her jacket and pulled an electronic device and smiled innocently up at Sheldon's back and said, quite loudly, "Now can I use my claymores, sweetie? Stupid grunts are standing right in the kill zone."

Bomber's sudden appearance rattled him more than Leslie's casual request. The patrol leader blanched and then thought, _'Who the hell are these people and what have I stumbled into?'_

"I'm Captain Jacob Smith of the Army of the Republic of Deseret and I assure you that we mean you no harm. If we did, your bus would be in flames and we'd be inventorying your fuel and whatever is in your horse trailer."

"Stand down Bomber, Leslie. Les, go wake up Penny and tell her we have visitors." The claymores were a bluff. She was holding the remote control for the coach's entertainment center for some ungodly reason know only to her. Bomber's SAW was very real. Sheldon stuck the pistol in his field jacket pocket and leaned back on the bumper and calmly drank the rest of his cooling coffee. His legs were trembling and he felt faint. It had been a very close call.

The patrol leader rode with them to the 'Welcome Center' just south of Salt Lake City proper. He talked about the plague and how it had mutated, turning people into 'vessels of murderous rage'. "We lost tens of thousands to it before the cold set in. Only the Lord knows what the spring will bring."

* * *

The 'Welcome Center' was just that. They were met by a group of doctors and nurses who insisted on examining them for 'disease or infestation'. Penny objected when she and Winkle were separated from Sheldon and Bomber.

"No! We stay together or you can shove your welcome. We've been through too much together to be split up now."

Sheldon sat on a gurney while a nurse drew blood and then carefully examined him for lice or other infestations. "I assure you, madam, that my party has the highest standards of personal cleanliness."

"What's this?" A nurse untied Sheldon's field dressing and then paled when the wound was exposed. "How did you get this, Dr. Cooper?" she asked quietly.

"A crazy man tried to kill me with a scalpel. Dr. Winkle sewed me up as best she could. She's not good with blood but she did a good job, didn't she?"

Penny sat behind Sheldon on a gurney with her back to him, listening carefully to everything the nurse said. She'd heard the question and remembered that they'd never gotten around to redressing Sheldon's wound.

"I'll have one of our doctors take a look at this. It's – well, I'll get a doctor." She walked out of the draped area to find a physician and Penny hopped of her gurney and walked around, facing him, and looking at his wound.

"Oh, Shelley, it's infected!" Just then an old man in his 70s came in and pushed Penny gently aside. "Let's see what you've done to yourself, young man. My grandson says you're a doctor?"

"Who?" The old man chuckled. "He was the leader of the patrol that found you. Scared the bejesus out of him. Good lesson though. Can't take anything at face value anymore."

"Does that include a 'Welcome Center'?" Sheldon's tone was curt and demanding and brought another chuckle from the old doctor.

"If you're Mormons, we'll invite you to stay and become part of our community. If not, we'll feed you a hot meal, tend to your wounds and hurts, and then offer you a shower and send you on your way in the morning. It's the way things are now."

* * *

The four met with the Republic's 'intelligence section' and discussed what the group had found on their journey. The Republic's patrols never strayed further south than Provo.

"Do you have a map that includes Nevada?" Sheldon asked and an aide hurried away to bring her commander the requested map.

Sheldon pointed to Sibleysburg and told the intelligence officer about the cache of diesel fuel, gasoline, ammunition and trucks. "You'll find about, oh…" Sheldon staggered for a moment and then sat down, gesturing for Bomber to continue for him. The shot the doctor had given him made him sick to his stomach and dizzy.

" - Approproximately 8,000 gallons of diesel and 5,000 of gasoline. There's a connex buried near the western fence line in the motor pool. We took loose 9mm and 5.56mm rounds and, of course, the claymores that Captain Smith already knows about."

The young captain couldn't be more than 22 and he blushed when the intel officer laughed. "We heard about the ambush. Well played, Dr. Cooper."

"It was all Leslie's doing. She just can't wait to blow something up since she lost the use of her lasers." Winkle just smiled demurely at the intel officer but behind her smile was a murderous intent. No one fucked with her friends.

The intel officer was frank about their route through to Omaha. No one knew anything about what was happening to the northwest west of Green River. No refugees had come south to Salt Lake City since before Christmas.

"It's pretty barren up there. I'd suggest you laager up in Casper or a small town nearby and wait for the spring. You don't want to get caught in Nebraska in the winter. There's no one left to plow the roads and the winter storms and winds…well, you don't want to go there." He'd been an over the road truck driver as well as a national guardsman before the plague. He knew the road and weather conditions well.

Bomber noticed how none of the Mormons seemed to know about the dirty bombs that devastated so many cities like Omaha but didn't mention it. If asked, he'd offer but otherwise he'd keep his own counsel.

* * *

As they were preparing to leave, the old doctor pressed a Ziploc baggie into Penny's hands and said, "Start giving your husband one a day beginning tomorrow morning. Also," and he looked around quickly, "have your friend the diabetic take one of these instead of insulin every 3 days or so. It's a supplement but will stretch out his supply until you can find more." There were more than 100 pills of supplement in the other baggie.

They had their freshwater tank topped off and were 'escorted' out to I80. Their plans had changed somewhat based on what the intel officer had told them. It looked like they'd need to hole up someplace until the snow season passed. It wasn't Wyoming they were worried about. Once they hit the high plains, there would be little snow. It was Nebraska that frightened them.

* * *

Even with the heater on full blast, it was bitter cold in the fuel truck and they decided to pull off the interstate in Rock Springs and spend the night. Penny absolutely forbade Sheldon to take a turn in the fuel truck.

"Baby, you're sick and the medication needs time to work its magic. Freezing your ass off in some macho display is not going to help you get better. No debate, Shel. We've decided it's the way it's going to be."

Winkle, Penny and Boomer had also decided that a roving guard would start when they stopped for the night. Once the sun set, they took turns walking around the area and then finishing their shift inside the coach using the NVGs to monitor the road.

* * *

Penny had the middle shift, the 'mid-watch' and she crawled back into bed and molded herself against Sheldon's skinny frame. "Jesus, Shel, it frikkin' cold out there and it's snowing a little. So much for being in an arid and desert climate."

He whispered that if she wore clothes to bed, she wouldn't be so chilled and she whispered back that he wouldn't be able to touch her bare skin and make her happy in so many ways.

"But I know, sweetie, not tonight. Now if for some reason you wake up and can't sleep, wake me, okay. We never really talk anymore."

There was silence in the stateroom before he whispered, "Is there a problem between us, Penelope? I can't think of anything I've done – "

"No! No, ya big dork. I just miss the nights when we used to cuddle on the couch and talk about things. I miss how close we were, that's all."

"What would you like to talk about? I'm really not tired since I've done nothing at all but sit or lie around."

"Well…babies, Sheldon Cooper, babies."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14Plague

"B-babies? B-babies?" His mind tripped and went into reset and his eidetic memory reviewed the very first time (of only two) that they'd made love. Well, the first was almost animal sex brought on by their mutual grief and the emotional tension of their situation.

'_Drat! The first time – no protection. None the second time, either. If she's pregnant, we need to find a permanent place, a safe place, to start our community. Oh, Newton! We'll need an OB/Gyn and a trained nurse and delivery facilities and we'll need to start collecting baby clothes and Pampers and…'_

She couldn't see his face in the dark but from his breathing and the cold sweat she felt on his brow, she knew he was in panic/plan mode.

"Sweetheart, I'm not pregnant. I've still got a good 3 months left on my shot so we won't have to worry about condoms until the spring. I just wanted to see how you felt about the two of us starting a family once we find others and can establish ourselves."

"We'll need to get married first, Penny. We'll need to find a preacher or a priest or – "

She kissed him more to stop his ramblings than to start anything but it turned into a hot kiss that led her to pulling down his sweatpants and fondling him but he stopped her.

"I must be insane, Penny, but I'm really not up for this tonight. Give me a couple of days to recover fully and then we'll need to worry about soundproofing the bedroom, okay?"

Sheldon felt like crap and although they hadn't really started anything, her movements had pulled at his restitched wound and it hurt. He wouldn't say anything because she'd feel guilty so he just begged off.

"I'm gonna hold you to that, Moon Pie. I'll just muffle my screams of ecstasy by stuffing a pillow in my mouth."

She loved teasing him and wished there were some light source that would allow her to see the look on his face. Sometimes he was such a prude and other times he just seemed to roll with her comments.

* * *

Leslie heard a moan from the Pullman bunk above her and she reached up and laid the palm of her hand against the compartment above her and swore she felt it vibrating.

"Bomber, you okay up there?" It was supposed to be his shift on watch but it looked like the sky was turning gray so he must have just come in.

"Just c-c-cold. Sorry to w-w-wake you." His teeth were chattering and he was cold…the cold that a diabetic feels when they're pushing things with their insulin dosages. He was trying to stretch out his meager supply until they could recover more that wasn't 'stale' and susceptibility to cold was a side effect.

"I'm coming up. Can't sleep anyhow. Make room for me." She rolled out of her toasty cocoon of blankets and climbed up into the bunk above hers bringing her blankets with her. She slipped in beside him and whispered that he should roll over and she'd spoon against his back and he'd be warm in no time.

"You need to lose the sweats, Bomber, if this is going to work. Don't be such a prude." She helped him pull off his sweatshirt and she hissed when her bare skin touched his. It was like ice!

"C-can't get warm, Les. M'thermostat's screwed up. Can't stop shiverin'."

Leslie started rubbing him all over with her uninjured hand, cursing the woman in the Feed & Grain for her injury. She needed her other hand.

She shoved a thigh between his and pulled him as close to her as possible and wrapped the blankets around them and soon his shivering subsided and Bomber turned over and rubbed her bare back and whispered, "Thanks. I feel a lot better now."

Leslie smiled wickedly in the dark and whispered back that soon 'we'll both feel a lot better, Hideki'.

* * *

After a quick breakfast, the group split up for the first shift of driving. Sheldon had demanded to ride along with Penny and she finally agreed after he jerked her back into the bedroom and told her the 'facts of life'.

"Penny, Bomber's health is slipping. I've been keeping track of the insulin, checking on it for deterioration. He's skipping doses altogether, depending on those pills we got from the doc to carry him through. It's not going to work and he's having problems already. Besides, he and Winkle have established a sexual relationship and it's only fair to let them have some comfortable 'alone-time'."

Penny looked subdued and stomped out into the galley, grabbed a cup of coffee and turned and glared at Sheldon saying, "If you freeze your balls off, don't expect me to warm 'em up, Moon Pie." She stormed off the coach and Sheldon quickly followed, his coffee in one hand while he pulled on his field jacket.

Penny's 'anger' was all a façade. She agreed with Sheldon about Bomber but was serious about not warming up his nuts if they got cold.

* * *

Casper was a no-go. Most of the buildings in the business district had burned to the ground either intentionally or accidentally, no one knew. They all agreed to push on further east but to alter their route and head for Douglas, a small town where they could scavenge and hopefully find a place to hole up for the next few weeks.

Sheldon and Leslie were cleaning up after the lunch stop and Sheldon told her about Bomber's insulin usage and told her to push him to 'use what he had' and follow the Mormon doc's instructions.

"He can't handle the cold, Sheldon. He shivered so much last night that it woke me up. I had to cuddle up with him just – "

"I remember how it was at the Magnetic Pole. The heater died one night. Yeah, embarrassing but we didn't freeze to death. We just agreed never to talk about it."

"Really, Sheldon? You guys slept naked and – oh, I don't even want to know…" She did. She was always curious about what guys did when they were out away from society and on their own. She'd long ago admitted to a prurient interest in such goings on.

"I was between Howard and Leonard. I think Raj spent the whole night sighing and giggling. I believe I fulfilled my REM requirements. I have no idea what other fulfillments the others may have attained nor do I wish to conjecture."

"Oh, TMI…I wonder how Raj is doing? Think he made it home okay? He was the only one I really related to. Howard and his blonde are probably fucking like bunnies in some warm chalet in the Dells, right? I sure hope so."

Talk of their friends died out as each silently concluded that they were probably dead. Winkle realized that Sheldon had deflected the conversation onto 'safer' ground and away from Bomber's situation.

"Shel, we need to hole up someplace – a farm house or a ranch house or – "

"Look for house trailers…mobile homes or parks. An RV park. We can maybe scavenge some propane and dump our poop tank and gray water at an RV park. If there's potable water, we can all enjoy a few showers before moving on."

They saw the signs for the "Medicine Bow RV Resort" and turned off I25 at the indicated exit. The road was a well maintained 2-lane with several vacation homes in clumps but Winkle pushed for getting to their goal.

"We can always check each one out after we fill up our tanks and maybe take a few days just to recharge. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm mentally exhausted." She wanted a few days' down time with Bomber to get him back on his schedule.

Medicine Bow RV Resort  
South of Douglas, WY

Penny stopped the coach in the middle of the road and shut down the diesel engine. She cracked her neck and then stepped down into the cold mountain air, shivered and quickly zipped up her bulky over-sized field jacket. Sheldon had ripped up a blanket and made 'scarves' for them all and now she was so glad they'd sacrificed the fleece.

"Okay, Bomber and I will take the fuel truck just past the entrance and set up a look out while you and Penny check out the few travel trailers that are there. Once we're sure we're alone, we'll bring up the coach and the fuel truck and park them out of sight from the road."

Winkle handed out instructions like a drill sergeant but it was just a formality. Penny carried the MP-5 and Sheldon carried a Mossberg shotgun. Both had their 9mm pistols and each had a grenade to be used only if they ran into big trouble.

The driveway ran up a fairly steep grade and then leveled out offering a breath taking view of the mountains that were the main topographical feature of the national forest. There was a large A-frame Chalet made of logs on the left with a restaurant and bar attached almost as an afterthought at an angle to the right. An old neon sign flickered on and off ironically flashing 'Vacancy' every few seconds.

"Power," murmured Penny. She'd pulled the scarf up over her mouth and nose. Sheldon muttered, "Stay put, Penny. I'm going to check the first travel trailer." He took out the radio and told them about the presence of power. Power meant people and people meant trouble nowadays. Winkle rested her SAW on the canvas cover of the truck and scanned the area.

The aluminum door to the travel trailer was unlocked and Sheldon stepped in, a flashlight in one hand – and came backed right out, almost falling off the rickety wooden steps and falling to his knees, vomiting. The door banged against the wooden railing and slammed shut.

He held up a hand and signaled Penny to stay where she was and got up, wiped his mouth with a handful of snow and then walked to the front of the trailer and shook each of the propane jugs. Both were empty.

He walked to the next trailer and Penny jogged up beside him. His face was pale and his eyes were watery.

"We'll need to burn it, Penny. I don't want any of you going inside. Just burn it." He walked briskly away and Penny finally answered Winkle.

"Something bad in the first trailer. Shel says to burn it after we check the rest and no one is to go inside."

Of the four units, only one had a full canister. They quickly unhooked it and set it in the middle of the paved lane. Penny went back to bring the coach up and Sheldon walked over to the 'Office' and looked through the glass, not wanting to go in alone. He was deathly afraid of what he might find.

Winkle had them park the coach and the fuel truck behind the restaurant in the employees' parking area. She and Penny did a quick walk around the resort complex, noting that there were laundry facilities and showers, both of which were very welcome.

"Did he say what was in the first travel trailer, Penn?" Winkle had stopped her after they walked out of the guest shower area, curious.

"No, but from his reaction…I don't wanna know, either. We'll just use the fuel truck to tow it out into a field and burn it."

The door to the Resort office area was unlocked and the two men walked into the lobby, impressed by its highly polished log beams and walls. It was like walking into another century. It was more like a hotel lobby than anything else, complete with a vintage registration desk. And everything was clean without the hint of dust. There were newspapers and magazines for sale and all pre-dated Thanksgiving.

While the girls backed them up, the men checked out the entire office area. It was empty but the computer at the desk was still displaying a screensaver and Bomber wondered aloud about the power source.

"We didn't see any power lines when we drove in so it must be an on-site source but then I don't hear a generator, either. Let's clear this place and then the restaurant and bar.

Next: There goes the neighborhood


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Been a while. Thanks for the reviews and follows. I may rewrite a couple of chapters based on some comments and PMs. Good ideas are hard to pass up.

* * *

Chapter 15Plague

Bomber was standing behind the registration desk trying to log on to the internet when he felt someone behind him. He'd left his pistol on the counter and if the person behind him had a weapon, he'd never grab his pistol in time.

Winkle had walked through the resort office and wondered why it was so small when it looked so large from outside. _'Maybe it's the log walls that make it look so big from outside?'_ Then she wondered why there was an entire glass front on the upper portion of the A-frame but a fairly normal ceiling all through the lobby.

'_A second story? Storage? Just a front to make it look nice?'_

She stood behind Bomber and watched as he tried to log onto the internet. He was getting careless about his own safety and that was unacceptable. He needed a lesson.

She stuck her pistol in the small of his back and he stiffened but the smirked when he saw her reflection in the monitor's surface.

"I don't know who you are but I'm willing to have wild and loud sex with you if you allow me to live…please?" He put a whimper into his voice and saw her jaw go slack in surprise and he whirled and slapped the pistol away, hoping it was on safe.

"And now, little girl, you're going to pay the price for sneaking up on me…" They'd only had sex once but he wanted to kiss her in the daylight and see the look on her face. He leaned in and pressed his lips against her slightly open ones and let his tongue slip between them and caress hers.

She sighed and melted against him, deepening the kiss and fencing with his invading tongue.

"We shouldn't be doing this, Bomber, until we've cleared the building and made sure we're secure. Once that's done, however…" She made a move to grab his crotch but he danced away from her, laughing.

"Too slow, Les. Gotta be faster than that to catch me – " He broke of his smart-assed retort and grabbed his pistol from the counter and pointed it over her shoulder.

"Put down that scatter gun, Miss. We're not here to do any harm, just looking for a place to lay low and recover our strength. I'm Hideki Tanaka, USAF, and this is Dr. Leslie Winkle. We're – "

The object of his attention was a young girl, probably not more than 18, and filthy. The sweater she was wearing was filthy. She dropped the shotgun and took a faltering step towards Leslie but her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted.

* * *

"Good morning, sleepy head," were the first words Deborah heard when she awoke from what she hoped was just a nightmare. She opened her eyes and saw two women sitting beside the bed she was in.

"I'm Penny Ford and she's Dr. Leslie Winkle but you can just call us Penny and Leslie. I'll bet you're hungry? We've got soup made, sweetie, if you'd like some."

"Where am I? Where have you taken me?" She looked down at herself under the blankets. "And where the hell are my clothes?" She was afraid of strangers and had been told to hide whenever anyone came around. They might have the disease, or worse, they might take her away.

"Your clothes are in the washing machine. How long has it been since you…bathed?" It was a delicate question but the girl had been filthy.

"What are you going to do to me?" Her dark eyes were full of fear but the thought of soup after not eating for days...

"First, we're going to feed you and then we'll let you take a shower. Feel free to use my shampoo and conditioner. And my brush. You have such beautiful long hair…"

"And after that?" she asked, batting Penny's hand away from her hair. It was filthy and she hadn't bathed in…she didn't know just how long…days? A week? How long had it been since her parents made her run into the woods and hide?

"You can borrow some sweats. We've got loads of 'em. You're so tiny that you'll be swimming in them. And then when your own clothes are dry, you can change, or not." Penny was trying hard to put the girl at ease but Sheldon had given them a list of questions they needed answered.

"What's your name, sweetie?" Penny kept her tone light and sat back against the dark walnut paneling of the coach wall while Leslie went to find something for her to wear.

"Deborah. Deborah Still Waters. Where am I? What is this place?"

"This is our bus. My boyfriend did some customizing and now it's our refuge. We're from Pasadena. That's in Cali – "

"I know where it is. I'm not stupid. Are any of you sick? Coughing?" She knew of the symptoms from television before the broadcasts stopped. She knew about the rages first hand.

"No, we're all healthy except for the man you saw me with. He's Bomber, an ex-Air Force pilot. He has diabetes and one of the reasons we stopped here is to try and find him more insulin. Are you from around here? We really need to find a pharmacy and get some if there's any left."

The girl started laughing and it wasn't a pleasant laugh at all. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Leslie. "The only pharmacy for miles around is in Douglas if they haven't burned it like every other town they pass through. Maybe being so small – they won't know it's there. Maybe…but I doubt it."

"Who are 'they'?" asked Leslie. She didn't like the way this conversation was headed. '_Organized looters? Were they headed this way?'_

"They call themselves the 'Select' or maybe it's 'Elect', I don't really know. I heard my folks talking about it right before they hit our place. We live – lived – about 12 miles northeast of Douglas in Cienna. Just a wide spot in the road for cattle and horse ranches. It's gone now."

* * *

Deborah ate two bowls of soup and then while she showered, the four friends talked about what she'd told them. Bomber wanted to leave immediately and head for Denver. Leslie was adamant about checking out the pharmacy in Douglas and then heading east towards Denver.

Penny was uncertain, wanting more information about these 'Select' creeps, and had her say. "We can't go waltzing in to a town we know nothing about, just the four of us, without additional information on what we might face. Sure, we got guns but so will they. I can't imagine farmers or ranchers just letting people burn their homes. It's too dangerous. I'm sorry, Bomber, but it's too damned dangerous."

Sheldon had been very quiet during the discussion, sipping occasionally at a bottle of water, listening intently to both women. He smiled behind his water bottle. His initial belief that these two would each bring complementary talents to the 'survival' table had been right.

Penny was strong-willed but had a streak of common sense that tempered her impulsiveness with regards to almost anything except shoes and liquor. He loved her free spiritedness but respected how, when the chips were down, she was frequently the voice of reason.

Leslie was dogmatic, a planner, but suddenly her heart was in the equation and she was no longer the hard-bitten woman who'd dispatched the injured thugs in the parking lot without a second thought. She had feelings for Bomber and that colored her judgment and made her argument suspect.

"Sheldon?" He jerked himself back into the present, chagrined at having been caught daydreaming or so it appeared to the three others around the small galley table.

"What do you think we should do based on this new information?" Leslie stared at Sheldon, willing him to agree with her. Bomber would soon need fresh or less weakened insulin and it was imperative that he have it.

"I think…Bomber and I will take the fuel truck and drive into Douglas tonight under cover of darkness and find the pharmacy and loot it bare if it already hasn't been. We'll need to unload the fuel drums first and then, Leslie, I'd appreciate it if you could 'kit' us out for a night foray. We'll use the NVGs and the thermal goggles so we'll be able to drive 'blacked out' and the thermals will let us see any unnatural heat sources well before they see us. Weapons, I leave up to you as you're the 'expert'."

"NO! I absolutely forbid it, Sheldon! I'll go with Bomber. It makes – "

"Penny," he leaned back while his hand snaked into her lap and grabbed her fisted one, "I am the logical choice. Bomber can drive, I can't. Leslie is too emotionally involved and you and Leslie can both drive the bus. I can't. As I told you in Pasadena – "

She jerked her hand away from his and glared at him.

"You do not get to play the 'I'm expendable' card with me, Sheldon. I may not have an IQ of 187 or a fancy schmancy degree in physics and God knows what else but I'm smart enough to see through this."

Penny started to get up, unsure of where she was going but unable to just sit there while he listed all his 'shortcomings' but he put a large palm on her shoulder and forced her to remain. He wasn't done.

Sheldon stared into Penny's green eyes and then smiled, as if they were the only two people in the bus and certainly not sitting across from Leslie and Bomber, and leaned in and kissed her. Once he had her attention, he continued.

"As I told you in Pasadena, I am a follower while you and Leslie are alpha female pack leaders. Bomber's not in this equation, Penny, because his is the overriding need and his judgment is therefore questionable."

He held up a hand to stop her from interrupting again. He hated being interrupted. It was rude and a sign of lack of respect although he knew Penny's reasons were not grounded in derision.

"I am the logical choice as is Bomber to go on this foraging expedition. He needs insulin and a wingman. He's a leader, I, a follower. I shall return, don't you fret. We both will," he said, looking at Winkle.

Penny was still pissed but his damned logic overrode her emotional need to keep him safe with her, not out gallivanting around the countryside on some fool's errand. That thought shamed her. Bomber needed insulin.

"Okay, but ya better not take four years like Macarthur did, Moon Pie."

* * *

Deborah looked at the crude map of Douglas and pointed out the landmarks she'd drawn.

"This is the sheriff's station. There's no deputy except when they do their rounds once a week or so. This is the Food Mart and the pharmacy is across the street. It's not a big city grocery store so don't be surprised at the stock. The pharmacy is also the post office so it's got bars on the windows and stuff like that."

It took most of the afternoon for Sheldon and Bomber to move the fuel drums from the truck to concrete pad behind the bar's rear door. Penny, Leslie and Deborah explored the resort's office and Leslie found a doorway leading to stairs that went to the upper level. It was cleverly made to look like part of the wall behind the registration desk.

"I don't want to go up there…I'll wait down here. There's no heat up there. Feel the draft?" The cold air chilled the three but Winkle was a scientist and this was a mystery. First, the concealed door, and now this. Deborah's reluctance was easily handled.

"I'm going up. Penny, why don't you see if there's anything we can use in the store room. Take Deborah with you, just in case."

"Nope. We stick together. Sweetie, there's nothing to be afraid of. Big Sis is here…y'know, Gunz Winkle, Scourge of the Paintball Games." She was poking fun at Winkle and Leslie went along with it, poking back.

"Well, you could have played too but then…your ass made too tempting a target." She was referring to an episode where Howard had shot Penny in the butt after becoming 'target fixated'. She'd retaliated, leaving him writhing in the dirt with a bright yellow crotch.

Deborah snorted a laugh and then followed Leslie upstairs, with Penny bringing up the rear.

"Holy crap on a cracker! What the hell kind of people lived here?" Penny was shocked at what she saw but Winkle just clapped her hands with glee.

Deborah walked over to close the windows but let out a girly scream. There was a large winged back chair sitting in front of the open window and the naked corpse of middle aged woman was curled up in it like she'd fallen asleep. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was clutched in one hand.

"Eeewwww…well, at least the open window kept it from stinking. I'll go down and find something to wrap it up in. I'll be right – " started Penny but Winkle moved past her.

Winkle grabbed the corpse by the blanket it was wrapped in and muscled it out the window. Rigor mortis and the cold made it a clumsy burden but she still managed to push it out. The corpse bounced off a small overhang and the dropped out of sight.

"There. We'll close the windows and open the heating vents," she said, pointing to a ventilator grill that had paper taped over it, "and then we'll inventory our find and see if Bomber can figure out how these radios work."

Two walls were covered with modern assault weapons 'on display', and there were military boxes of ammunition against the walls, each labeled clearly with caliber and quantity.

There was a table in one corner and a rack of radio equipment above it. There were numerous postcards from around the world on display. The owner had been a ham radio enthusiast. And a voyeur. There were CCTV monitors labeled 'Women's shower' and other locations throughout the campgrounds.

There was a single bed against the remaining wall and it was neatly made up and covered with girly plush pillows. There were screen shots of various men and women, some together, obviously taken somehow from the CCTV feeds on the wall. This was the lair of a pervert, a woman, but still, a pervert.

* * *

Sheldon was insistent that the scrounging mission go as scheduled and so the three women watched as the empty fuel truck headed down the snowy driveway and out onto the country road headed toward Douglas.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," muttered Penny.

Next: Playing Hide & See in the New World


	17. Chapter 17

A.N: Lost 200 readers between last chapter and this one. Might start killing them off one by one...bwahaha.

Reviewer had the AUDACITY (just kidding) to question the 'rush to nice' by Winkle. I like her. I figure that once she's removed from the Male-Dominated environment of CalTech she can let some of her guard down and show a little decency toward male characters (as well as scratch that damned itch of hers).

Nuff said. Thanks to the faithful reviewers and the followers. Are ya getting bored with it? Is it dragging for ya? Losing 40 readers per chapter. That means no one will be reading after chapter 24. Sad fact of life.

And to Howie(guest), can you say Sault St. Marie? Amokeh, nice catch on the name. I blew it with Penny's last name in later chapters (Ford) when I introduced her in chapter 1 as Drummond. Mea Culpa.

Reparata (yes, it's my real name, Pookie)

* * *

Chapter 16 Plague

While Penny and Leslie pushed their late supper around on their plates, thoughts on the guys in the fuel truck, Deborah ate and talked about the afternoon the raiders had shown up. Her dad had told her to take off and hide. She ran out to the storage shed and took off – on her dirt bike - tearing down paths she hoped the men on their big motorcycles wouldn't or couldn't follow.

She followed game trails until she hit the open pastures and then headed cross-country for her uncle's place but soon ran out of gas and found herself on foot and even colder. She stumbled onto a line shack and broke in and found heavy rubber boots and a rain slicker. The blankets on the cot smelled like stale cigarettes and sweat but she was freezing. She spent the night there and woke up to several inches of snow.

She spent the day wrapped up in the blanket on the cot and finally realized that freezing to death or dying of starvation just sitting on her butt were the only options open if she stayed in the shack so she scrounged what she could and took off, heading southeast toward the N. Platte River and the Medicine Bow where her uncle lived.

"I found this place by accident and like you guys, saw the sign flashing and figured if they had juice maybe I could stay for a bit, get warm and maybe get something to eat. Y'know, not everyone had the plague and so I banged on the door for 10 minutes or so and then just went around front and walked in."

"So you didn't know about the upstairs either? Where'd you get the shotgun, sweetie?"

Penny was slowly piecing together a scenario (although she didn't call it that) and didn't like it much. Raiders burning and killing made no sense at all unless they were crazy or desperate or had some master plan. Not knowing would drive Sheldon crazy so she kept prompting Deborah to keep talking.

"It was leaning against the registration desk. I took it and then walked around, getting the lay of the land, looking for game signs…looking for anyone I could hook up with."

"Deb, do you know what's going on with the first travel trailer? Sheldon said we weren't to go into it, that we should just burn it."

"My name is Deborah, not "Deb" or "Debbie". I saw…and Dr. Cooper is right. We should burn it."

Leslie asked her why she didn't break into the bar or restaurant and look for food or better clothes. Or use the showers and get clean.

"I was only here a few hours before you guys showed up and I hid until I figured out you weren't with _them_ and so I snuck back into the office and you guys know the rest."

* * *

It took both of them straining at the bolt cutters to finally break through the titanium padlock that secured the steel fire door at the rear of the pharmacy/Post Office. They approached their target from the rear just in case anyone happened to stroll down Main Street at 1am.

Sheldon used a crowbar to jimmy the door and then they were in, finally. Sheldon swept the facility with the thermal goggles but everything was 'cool'. He chuckled at his own joke and then put the imager device back into his backpack.

Bomber cut through the cheap padlock that secured the refrigerator and smiled when he opened it. There was still power to the unit and he saw brown boxes of insulin on the shelves. Either the pharmacist was a hoarder or the town was a haven for diabetics.

"We'll need syringes, too, Sheldon," Bomber whispered as he held up the 4 cartons each containing 12 little glass vials of insulin. He could see Sheldon's broad smile even in the light of the tiny penlight. Bomber grinned and then they began looking for syringes.

They were in and out of the pharmacy in less than 30 minutes. They drove slowly down the alley and out onto the main street and headed back to the Resort.

"That went well, Bomber. In and out in under 30 minutes and – Oh, no!" There were headlights of several motorcycles just down the street. They'd been spotted and they could hear the impact of bullets on the side of the truck as someone 'walked' automatic weapons fire across the truck as it turned.

"I'm hit, Sheldon!" yelled Bomber. A bullet had punched through the steel of the truck door.

"Can you continue to drive the truck?" Although Sheldon had watched Penny drive the fuel truck on several occasions, he'd never driven a standard shift and certainly nothing as complicated as the truck. The big coach had an automatic transmission.

"Sheldon, I've been shot in the calf and am probably bleeding like a stuck pig and you want to know if I can still _drive_?" There was a hint of aggravated hysteria in his voice. It reminded Sheldon a little bit of Leonard.

"Yes, Bomber. If you can still drive, slow down so that I can jump out and ambush our pursuers. We'll see if Leslie's acquisitions can disrupt their pursuit."

"Sheldon, you're nuts!" Bomber yelled.

"No, I'm not. Mother had me tested. After I debark, drive down the road a few hundred yards and then wait for me. I'll be along directly. If I'm not there in 15 minutes or if the looters show up, drive quickly back to the resort. I don't think motorcycles will do as well in 3 inches of snow as this truck does and that will give you the advantage."

"Sheldon, we can outrun 'em. You're right about the snow and – "

"And if they follow us? If they report back and more come here? Are you willing to take that chance? No. Leslie was right all along. Never leave the enemy in your rear."

* * *

The truck had rolled to a near-stop during their heated 'conversation' and Sheldon pushed open the door and hopped out, rolling over a few times in the snow.

'_It looked easy in the film when Indiana Jones fought the Russians over the Crystal Skull in the jungle…' _He lay there in the snow for a few seconds catching his breath. Sheldon Cooper, physicist, was scared shitless and when the truck pulled around the bend and out of sight, he was downright terrified.

Bomber sat in the idling truck, watching for Sheldon to come walking down the road in the big side mirror. He never took his eyes off the road, not even when he tightened the makeshift tourniquet that he'd wrapped around his left leg, just below the knee. He could feel the blood pooling in his boot and – _BOOM!_

The sound of a grenade exploding startled him and his right foot slipped off the clutch and the big truck lurched forward and stalled.

'_Stupid move, Hideki. Should have shifted into neutral, ya idiot!' _He berated himself for not thinking but wrote it off to the panic he felt about his leg. His imagination was on 'high' and he had visions of being held down by his friends while Leslie took off his leg with a hacksaw.

He looked at his expensive Aviator watch and noted the time. Fifteen minutes he'd said. Hideki decided to wait a bit more for his friend. All night, if necessary. _'You don't leave anyone behind, ever.' _

He shifted into neutral and restarted the truck and kicked the heater on high. Between the stress of being shot and the heater blowing on him full blast, he dozed off.

Sheldon almost cried with relief when he saw the truck idling along the side of the road. He could hardly put any weight on his right leg and so it seemed to take forever for him to get back to the truck. Sheldon knew Bomber wouldn't leave him behind but he'd been terrified that the pilot would follow his instructions even though no one else ever seemed to.

He jerked open the door and pulled himself up into the cab and gently shook Bomber awake. It wouldn't do to startle him and get shot for his trouble.

"Did you run them off? I heard the grenade and a few isolated shots."

"No pursuit. Let's get going. Can you drive?"

"Yeah, I think so, but God, what's that smell?"

Sheldon shifted his MP-5 around until he could unwind his window. "Drive, Bomber. No questions, just drive the damned truck."

* * *

Bomber pulled the truck up beside the coach and blew the horn. When the three girls tumbled out of the coach, Sheldon shouted that Bomber had been shot. Bomber opened his door and stepped on onto his healthy leg and the two older women helped him into the coach. Sheldon sort of slid down out the cab and then limped directly to the shower and laundry building still carrying his weapon. There was hot water there and he needed to get clean.

Deborah watched him ease down out of the cab, favoring his right leg. She started to go to him but when he turned and limped away and headed for the shower and laundry building she climbed back into the coach, emerging a few minutes later with towels and clean clothes for Dr. Cooper.

Yes, she knew who he was. Deborah had idolized Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, the youngest man ever to win the Stevenson Medal. He was her role model. She even had his picture on the wall of her apartment back in Cambridge.

She'd been a freshman at MIT majoring in Physics when the Plague hit and she'd returned home when the school suspended classes. She was smart, getting a perfect score on her SAT test and had won a National Merit Scholarship that paid her tuition. She knew all about Sheldon Cooper, PhD, the smartest man on earth.

Sheldon threw his field jacket onto one of the benches and stepped into the shower stall and closed it's chest-high frosted glass door and turned on the hot water. He tried, but couldn't bend to undo his bootlaces. His hip was killing him. He undid his belt and let his BDU trousers pool around his ankles. He pulled the BDU blouse over his head and then used the camouflaged t-shirt to wash the feces from his butt and thighs.

* * *

_The four men rode their motorcycles carefully in the 3-inch deep snow. Sheldon aimed the suppressor-equipped MP-5 that Leslie had insisted he take. She'd even duct taped two magazines together and showed him how to quickly change magazines. He had two additional magazines in his field jacket pocket._

_He took a deep breath and then stood up and took aim at the lead cyclist. He fired a 4 or 5 round burst and was surprised at how little noise it made. He felt like a gunfighter in some old western of TV, standing the street facing down crooks. One down and three to go._

_Sheldon knew he threw like a girl but desperate times called for desperate measures. He pulled the pin on the baseball-sized grenade and threw it towards the three approaching cyclists._

'_Boom'_

_Two more down and only one to go. The screaming of one of the wounded sounded like a woman and for a second he was distracted by the thought that he had hurt a woman._

_The last cyclist fired at Sheldon and gunned his cycle. His spray went wild except for one bullet. It hit him on his holstered Beretta and the force of the blow spun_ _him around and onto his back. The impact was less than that of a bullet but Sheldon didn't know that. He felt his bowels loosen and he hoped none of his friends found his body. It would be horribly embarrassing for him. _

_He found the strength to roll over and fired the remainder of his magazine at the approaching cyclist. The man flipped over the back of the bike and Sheldon must have hit the gas tank because the cycle burst into flames._

_He got to his knees and the pain was incredible. He grayed out for a few seconds but managed to get to his feet and check out the bodies._

_One of them __was __a woman. He felt an immediate rush of shame for his actions until he saw her necklace of ears – human ears – and some were very small._

"_Help – help me, please…" she whispered. Sheldon knelt down and tore the necklace off her with his gloved hand and stuffed it into the pocket of his field jacket._

_His interrogation was short and violent. Once he had the information he needed, he checked on the other thug. He was dead._

"_Please, I answered your questions…you said you'd help me…" she raised her hand in a begging gesture. Her wounds were fatal and Sheldon saw no reason to speed the dying process along for her._

"_I lied."_

_He turned and hobbled away, a grim smile on his face._

* * *

The hot water cascaded over his aching body. From the hip across and down his upper thigh, the skin was turning black. No bullet wound. He felt his shame grow. _'Coward!'_ his mind yelled.

"Dr. Cooper, I've brought you a change of clothes and if you toss me you uniform, I'll throw it in the washing – "

She looked over the partition and saw him standing with his pants around his ankles, still wearing his boots. She knew what had happened but didn't think any less of him for it. If anything, it increased the adoration she felt for him. He was a physicist but also a warrior in the traditions of her ancestors.

She opened the shower door and kept her eyes on his boots. "I promise not to peek, Dr. Cooper. Let me help you get your boots and pants off. I brought soap and shampoo. I'll be right outside if you need any help."

Sheldon was too embarrassed and humiliated to do anything more than nod. He was grateful for the help but wished – _'if wishes were fishes, no one would starve' _– as his Meemaw used to say.

* * *

Deborah stood at the washing machine, sobbing quietly. She had emptied the pockets of Dr. Cooper's field jacket and removed the extra magazines and two grenades and found the grisly necklace – she recognized one of the ears by its heart shaped diamond stud – her father had given her mom those earrings for her birthday.

Bomber's leg wound turned out to be a deep and painful gouge through the fleshy part of his upper calf. It bled until Leslie packed the wound and then bandaged it. He'd talked nonstop through out the process, giving them details but admitted that he knew nothing about what the 'Doc' had done, only that he'd barely said a word on the drive back and that 'there would be no pursuit'.

"Where is he, anyhow? And where's Deborah?" asked Penny.


	18. Chapter 18

Thank you all very much for the awesome support. Maybe I should advertise to get more readers. Hate all the 'Lenny' and 'Shamy' but then that's just my opinion.

A bit longer than usual but I'm going away for the weekend.

Reparata

* * *

Chapter 17 Plague

Sheldon dried himself with the towels Deborah had thoughtfully provided him and dressed hurriedly. The room was heated but still drafty.

Deborah had also dropped off the extra pair of work boots that Penny had scrounged for him back in Nevada at the Feed & Grain store and he gratefully pulled them on over his thick woolen socks (another item from Nevada).

He emerged feeling physically better but emotionally just as wrecked. _'I need to find Penny, check on Bomber and then drag her back to bed and just hang on to her until I resolve this emotional crisis. Perhaps she might be able to explain my bestial acts upon that woman and my decision to let her suffer?'_

"Deborah, you should not touch those. You have no idea what pathogens might be crawling all over them. It was my intention to either burn or bury them, not allowing anyone to see them. You shouldn't have to witness the results of man's depravity on his fellow man."

"Or woman or child. Some of these are children's ears and – and that one, with the diamond stud, that's my Mom's, Dr. Cooper!" She broke down in sobs and flung herself against him, crying into his BDU blouse. Sheldon felt uncomfortable and finally just wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to cry herself out.

He was unconsciously stroking her hair and wondering how he would respond if he found _his_ mother's ear on a trophy necklace.

And that's how Penny found them, in an intimate embrace, at least from her viewpoint.

* * *

"What the HELL, Sheldon Cooper, is going on here?" Her voice was loud and it startled them both. She saw the look on Deborah's face, how puffy her eyes were and how Sheldon seemed to be providing her with some sort of emotional support and she felt…jealous and ashamed at the same time.

"Oh, sweetie, what's wrong?" She elbowed Sheldon away and took his place. Deborah immediately stiffened in Penny's embrace. To Sheldon, it looked like he imagined people saw him with Penny, stiff and uncomfortable with hugs and such.

"Penny, you don't understand. Deborah is in this emotionally-charged state because of something she found in my field jacket pocket – something I wrenched from the neck of a woman raider – a necklace of human ears!"

"And one of them was my mother's, Penny," said Deborah, her face against Penny's shoulder. "I recognized her diamond stud." That set off another burst of tears and Penny looked over at Sheldon and mouthed, 'Sorry. I love you, Sheldon'.

Sheldon just nodded and then transferred his clothes from the washer to the dryer but stopped and gagged. Still smelled like…

He put them back in the washer and dumped laundry detergent in and started the washer.

"They still smelled like – never mind. How's Bomber?" Penny knew a deflection when she heard one but didn't push the 'smell' issue. He'd tell her when he felt able to and she knew not to pressure Sheldon about things he didn't want to discuss. He'd just dig in his heels and any progress they'd made toward emotional intimacy would be set back a ways.

She watched him move around. "Why are you limping, Sheldon? What have you done to yourself?" The unspoken 'this time' hung in the air.

"I got shot. It hit my holstered pistol else I would not be standing here. I'm just bruised, Penny. No reason to go into warp drive over a bruise, is there?"

"It's reason enough when it's _you, _baby. Now, drop the drawers and show me. You might think it's nothing but I'll be the judge of it."

"Penelope Ford, I am not…oh, for Heaven's sake…" He undid his belt and lowered his pants just enough so that she could see the bruise – and nothing else. After all, there was a young girl present. And he wasn't wearing underwear. Something Deborah forgot about but he didn't think it proper to mention even though she had seen his naked butt in the shower stall. Sheldon was astute enough to know that offering up that tidbit would be akin to pouring gasoline on Penny's emotional fire.

Sheldon whispered to Penny that she should take Deborah back to the coach and get her settled in. He would be up directly as soon as his clothing completed the cleaning cycle.

"Don't be long, Sheldon. I want to get a better look at that leg and decide how best to treat it. I also want to hear what _really_ happened, sweetheart, not the PG-13 version Bomber gave us. Oh, and his leg? Nasty but Leslie packed the wound and fed him antibiotics. No stitches. And that reminds me," she whispered, "I need to check yours. It's been a week and they might be ready to come out."

Had it been seven days since they'd run into the Deseret patrol? _'Time surely does fly when you're having fun.'_

* * *

They made up a bed for Deborah on the couch in the lounge. There was a smaller stateroom but Winkle had converted it into their 'armory'. She and Bomber shared one of the Pullman berths and Penny and Sheldon slept in the master stateroom.

A small lamp lighted their 'bedroom'. Penny had draped some fabric over it to soften the glare. She helped him to undress and lie down in the bed.

"I looked at your 9mm, sweetheart, and it's useless now. I'm glad you didn't need it. Receiver is dented and the barrel…well, I'm glad it saved you. Maybe we should keep it around as a reminder that…that life is short and violent now and…"

Sheldon hated it when she cried, whenever any woman cried, but especially when she did. He felt totally inadequate and it further fueled his spiraling depression. His 'there, there' didn't work at all and so he just pulled her over as close as he could manage and held her, telling her it was okay and that things would get better.

Penny finally fell asleep and Sheldon quickly followed her.

* * *

Sheldon took his morning coffee and eased himself down the steps of the coach into the crisp cold of the early mountain morning. It had snowed again, maybe three more inches, and the gray clouds scudding across the skies seemed to herald more.

As was her habit, Leslie soon joined him but stood on the last step to check things out, another habit she'd developed since the surprise visit by the Deseret patrol.

Sheldon was standing, his feet about shoulder width apart and one arm behind his back, fist clenched. He was gazing up at the mountains, barely visible in the flurries. She knew Sheldon Cooper better than anyone, including Penny. Whatever happened last night was troubling him. She'd seen this same stance before, only it had been a whiteboard covered with equations that captured his intense stare, not mountains.

Leslie invaded his personal space, looping an arm through his. "What's up, Buttercup?"

"That's Penny's line, Leslie. Are you dropping the façade of hard-bitten experimental physicist and allowing your 'girl' side to show? I wish you wouldn't. The group will need your pragmatism in the future, not your softer side."

"Do I have a softer side, Sheldon?" she asked in a soft and uncertain voice. She felt flattered that he'd even mention it since he considered her, even after all that had gone down, merely a 'fellow traveler', a team member, nothing more.

"Despite your efforts to hide it, yes."

"What happened to put you in such a dark place, Cooper? What happened last night – "

"Ask Bomber." Sheldon wasn't going to discuss his actions with anyone. He didn't want anyone to know about the monster that lurked in their midst. He was contemplating leaving the group and striking out on his own, to put distance between him and the decent people in his life. He hadn't slept at all, not one wink, despite how tired he felt.

"He doesn't know what happened in Douglas, Dumbass, because you told him to drive off and leave you behind. Do you know how shitty that made him feel? You made him violate a credo that has stood for two centuries: '_Leave no man behind'._"

She wanted to hug him and strangle him at the same time. He could be so damned closed off and unyielding.

"He didn't leave me behind, Dr. Winkle. He waited much longer than required for my reappearance, much longer. I'm glad he did. I never could have made it back if he hadn't."

"So tell me what happened that has you wallowing in this pile of pity and - mmph." He covered her mouth with the palm of hand to shush her. He'd heard something despite the dampening effect of the falling snow.

There! He heard it again. It sounded like…a sound he remembered from childhood…a horse nickering.

"Wake the others. We don't have any defensive positions but keep everyone under cover. Use grenades so you don't give away your location. Go, Leslie!" whispered Sheldon. She knew he had preternatural hearing and knew he wasn't using a 'sound' as an excuse to avoid an emotional situation.

Winkle quietly scrambled back to the coach to rouse the others.

He heard the sound again and it seemed closer. The MP-5 he carried the previous night was hanging by its carrying strap over his shoulder and he lurched upright and brought it up into position. He'd seen the map of the resort in the office and figured whoever was approaching had come up from the river and was using the lanes connecting the camping and RV sites to make their approach.

Sheldon cursed his hip and his thigh and whatever scientist that had 'accidentally' created the Choker and let it loose on the world. In his mind's eye he envisioned the area as a satellite map.

The woman last night had said that the Select force was coming from the Northeast heading southwest towards Salt Lake City but these unseen intruders were approaching from the southeast…

* * *

'_This was a bad idea, Sheldon Lee Cooper, a very, very bad idea.' _He lurched along the side of the snow-covered lane, moving from tree to tree, resting every few steps until he was out of sight of the coach.

Penny followed his tracks in the new snow and ran up behind him, scaring him half to death.

"Where ever you go, Sheldon, I go. Live with it. Now, what's the situation?" she whispered. She shoved a grenade into Sheldon's field jacket pocket and shouldered her automatic rifle. Leslie had shown her how to load and fire the grenade launcher that made up the forearm grip and she was ready to drop a load of hurt on whoever was creeping up on them.

"Let's get into the trees, Penelope, and we _will_ have a discussion about doing what you're told when this is over," he said, with a confidence he just didn't feel.

She helped him into the trees and then stuck her tongue out at him. It was childishly idiotic but it brought a smile to his face. Penny loved the impish quality of his smile. It was what first attracted her to him, that and his whiteboard explanation that very first day years ago. But then Leonard had been the more aggressive of the two…

Sheldon grabbed her by the upper arms and spun her around until her back was against a spruce tree. He put his fingers to her lips and went "Shhh". Her eyes got big, thinking that he'd seen something and was hiding them from – his warm lips crashed into hers and he put every ounce of feelings he had for her into it. Their tongues caressed and stroked each other, gently seeking dominance.

He broke off the kiss and pressed another into her hair and held her tightly. He could see three men on horseback, each armed in various ways but their primary weapon was either a modern hunting bow or a crossbow. Scoped hunting rifles were across their backs and he saw lever-action rifles or carbines in scabbards on their saddles.

Sheldon called out to them, startling their horses and surprising the men. "Stop right there. We don't want any trouble. State your business. If you want to trade, fine. If you want to trade information, that's really fine. We've got hot coffee and we can feed you something…probably pancakes since that's pretty much all Winkle can make."

Winkle's laughter further startled the three. Sheldon started to walk down to the lane using the trees and saplings for support but his hip gave out when he stepped onto the snowy lane and he ended up face down in the snow.

The lead man got off his horse and closed the distance between them to 5 yards. "Are you sick? Coughing up blood?" He was obviously nervous and afraid of the Choker.

Sheldon laughed and tried to get up but couldn't. "No, just clumsy. Ran into a Select patrol last night in Douglas and – "

"Judith, bring up the first aid kit. Got a patient for you." The third 'man' hopped off her horse and took a backpack from her saddle horn and ran up to where Sheldon was lying. The other man slide gracefully off his horse and walked up and stood beside the tall man who had given the instructions.

"Are you two alone?" meaning Sheldon and Winkle.

Penny stepped out from behind the spruce tree and aimed her weapon at the woman and said, "Nope. And that better be medical junk that comes out of that bag." She aimed her automatic rifle at the woman to emphasize her point.

"What happened to you, Mister?" she asked, fishing for information. She ignored Penny's threat and started unzipping Sheldon's parka, intent upon examining the 'wound'.

"Doctor. Dr. Sheldon Cooper, late of CalTech in Pasadena. That's in Calif – "

"I know where Pasadena is, Dr. Cooper. Medical doctor?" It would be too much to hope for but hope springs eternal…

"No, theoretical physics. Utterly useless in this situation." He was blushing as the pretty woman unbuckled his belt and began pulling down his BDU pants.

Penny knelt down next to Sheldon and pulled his head onto her lap. She still held her weapon but was worried more about him than the woman.

"Wife?" she asked Sheldon, looking at Penny.

"I suppose she'd say 'yes' if I asked her. We'll make things formal when we find a pastor or someone to marry us. I refuse to live like a hippie. Her name's Penny and – "

"Aunt Judith! Uncle Bill!" Deborah came barreling out of a thicket of trees ten yards up the lane, running towards the older man but changed course when she saw the third rider.

"Oh, Michael…" She was crying as she smashed into a man a head shorter than she, taking him down with her. She was kissing his face and crying, saying meaningless things.

"Friends?" Sheldon asked dryly to the woman with her cold hands in his pants, as he looked at Deborah and the man named Michael.

"Boyfriend. Dumb as a box of rocks but opposites attract, don't they?" Penny blushed but Sheldon said to the woman, "Intelligence is more a function of utility in a given situation, don't you think? Penny's fucking brilliant and I'm the proverbial box of rocks."

Penny's smile would have melted the snow but Judith pressed on Sheldon's leg and he had to stifle a scream.

"Sorry, sorry. What happened?"

"He ran into a 4-man Select patrol in Douglas last night and a bullet hit his holstered pistol." She took off her glove and cupped Sheldon's face against her to take his mind off whatever the woman was doing.

"Well, I can't be sure without an x-ray but I think the bone and tissue are just bruised. It's painful but aspirin or ibuprofen will help. You'll need to keep active. It'll speed the healing process. I'll put a poultice on it that should help reduce the swelling."

The Still Waters left a map showing the location of their 'settlement' and an open invitation to join them anytime the mood struck them. They'd only left to check up on Deborah's father and mother and to convince them to return with them to the settlement.

"We'll have to start armed patrols now, something we didn't think we'd have to do."

"The Select are heading toward Salt Lake City according to our information. They're in for a rude awakening when they run up against the Mormons. The four we ran into were just a scouting party protecting the flanks of their main body. You should be able to strip Douglas. All we took were some boxes of insulin and syringes for Bomber."

Penny saw Sheldon's eye start to twitch and wondered what he was lying about.

"Deborah, before you go, I have something for you." Sheldon reached into his pocket and pulled out her mother's diamond stud earring. He'd removed it earlier in the morning when he buried the ears while the coffee was brewing.

Deborah had hugged Sheldon the longest and had whispered something in his ear that made him turn bright red and then they were gone, Deborah riding behind Michael and hanging on. None of them looked back. It was the way of things now.

Next: Making Contact with old friends


	19. Chapter 19

It's short but I'm just not in the mood to wax prosaic. Differing points of view and a lot of non-fluffy introspection. I'll get to the 'friends' thing in the next chapter.

* * *

Chapter 18Plague

PPOV

I am so worried about Sheldon. He seems quieter than usual and there are times when he just walks off in the middle of a conversation with any one of us, so it's not just me.

His injury has kept us from 'getting busy' although he does seem to be more clingy when we're alone or in bed. Moon Pie has never been a touchy-feeling kind of guy but since Douglas, he holds me tighter at night, holds my hand when we're walking together and he tells me 'I love you, Penny', kisses me passionately and then folds me up in his arms and falls into a restless sleep.

Sure, we're making great progress as a 'couple' given the stress we're all under, but his long periods of walking off alone, or sitting above the office listening to the static on the short wave radios, scares me.

Whatever happened in Douglas really shook him up and he can't or won't talk to me about it.

Maybe Winkle can find out what's going on in that beautiful mind of his because I sure can't.

* * *

WPOV

I would never admit it but these morning coffee breaks with Sheldon are the high point of my day. Bomber and I have developed a relationship but it's based on sex and little else. Cooper just sighs when I put my arm through his and lean my head against his shoulder. A month ago he would have either given me strikes for indecent personal contact or banished me forever. But that seems so long ago. I think he likes it when I lean my head on his shoulder. Sometimes he slips up and even puts his arm around my shoulders.

I really envy Barbie and the way she and Sheldon are coming together, like two pieces of a puzzle that you forced into some place else in the puzzle but are now right where they belong - together.

I have to take my time with him. Barbie wants me to find out about Douglas and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to know. I do. He's…pulling away from us a little bit more each hour or so it seems. I gotta know about Douglas, it's the catalyst for these changes in him.

Did he and Deborah have sex in the shower room that night? They both disappeared and we all know about sex being a great stress reliever. She whispered something to him that made him turn beet red right before she left a week ago. And she seemed so damned reluctant to leave him, not us, but him. Would she still be here if her aunt and uncle hadn't brought her boyfriend along?

Is this Cooper's way of dealing with 'cheating' on Blondie?

"Sheldon, I need you to open up and talk about what happened that night in Douglas. It's obviously stressed you out. You quit talking mid-sentence and walk away sometimes. C'mon, Sheldon, I'm Leslie 'No Prisoners' Winkle."

* * *

SPOV

Will no one rid me of this woman? First Deborah, and then Penny and now, Winkle. My morning routine is all awry thanks to her incessant babbling about my need to 'open up'. Well…she asked for it and she's the least likely to run screaming in terror when she hears it. I don't believe she has a heart or a conscience.

"Fine. So be it. You want to know what happened after I sent Hideki away so that he'd be safe and gain the advantage should the raiders overcome my efforts? Do you really want to know? Can you handle the truth, Dr. Winkle?"

I saw her nod. Fine.

"I rolled out of the truck and fired a burst at the lead cyclist. I hit him, of course, and then, fearing that the other three would spread out and form a deadly crossfire, I tossed a grenade at them."

I pause, gathering my thoughts, censoring certain things, like the status of my pants, and she impatiently interrupts my efforts to give her a complete picture.

"Go on, Sheldon. You threw a grenade and then what?"

"The blast took out two of the raiders. One screamed like a woman badly wounded, while the other was killed outright by the blast."

I can see the remaining raider pulling his automatic weapon from his back and laying it across the crossbars of his handlebars to steady it and then accelerating towards me. The motorcycle fishtails in the snow and…

"Hey, don't get lost in the past, Sheldon, stay focused. You took out two more raiders and then what?"

"You keep interrupting me, Leslie, as I'm revisiting it in my mind trying to synthesize my view into a cogent description. Please stop that!"

She nods and squeezes my hand. I didn't even realize that she was holding it. Her hand is smaller than Penny's and somehow rougher and thinner. Not as feminine as Penny's, either.

"The last raider accelerated towards me and his motorcycle failed to maintain traction and threw his aim off. I got hit in the hip and spun around and down with the force of the impact."

The feel of Leslie's thumb gently rubbing the back of my larger hand distracts me. It distracts and yet comforts.

"I fired a long burst at him and he flipped backwards off his motorcycle. Several rounds struck the gasoline tank and it exploded in flames scant yards from me."

"So you killed three and wounded another. You must have been in terrible pain. What did you do then?"

She keeps interrupting me as I gather my thoughts. It is very annoying and I lash out at her for her constant interruptions.

"Quit interrupting me! I did what you did in the parking lot in Barstow. 'Never leave an enemy in your rear', remember?"

I can feel her flinch away from me but then she squeezes my hand and starts running her other hand up and down my arm. It's very disconcerting even if I cannot feel her bare skin through my field jacket.

"You did what had to be done to keep us all safe, Sheldon. Don't feel guilty about that. They'd have done far worse to us if they'd caught us unawares and you know it. Cutting off our ears would have been the least painful, I think."

I am startled at the new perspective Leslie has introduced. Yes, I have no doubt that they would have done heinous things to us had they caught us unprepared but that hardly mitigates my uncivilized and bestial actions.

"You are undoubtedly right but…does that condone what I did? I don't think so."

I hear her sigh, thinking I'm done with our forced discussion but I'm not finished. Not by half. I waited until her mouth was full of coffee from the cup she'd retrieved from our makeshift table before continuing.

"The wounded raider I mentioned was indeed a woman. She was rather pretty, actually, and begged me to help her. Her abdomen had been torn open by the blast and I could see her intestines oozing out through the rents in her clothing. There was nothing I could do for her to relieve her pain and I was going to shoot her when I saw her 'necklace'."

"Those ears…she wore them? What kind of woman would – "

"I jerked them from around her neck and stuffed them into my pocket. I asked her about her activities, promising her medical help. At first she wouldn't talk, afraid of possible consequences, I suppose. So I…"

My mouth is suddenly very dry and I'm shaking. I can't do this. I don't _want _to do this. I start to stand up and walk away, my morning routine now ruined but Winkle pulls me back down and unbelievably, puts her arms around me and whispers that she won't judge me.

"Please, Shel, don't stop now. It's bad to keep it all bottled up. I won't judge you, Sheldon. No matter what you tell me. And I promise I won't mention a word of this to the others. It'll be our secret."

"I – I pressed my hand hard against her wound, ignoring her screams. I told her that the pain would continue until she answered all my questions. If she answered every question I'd give her morphine that we found in the pharmacy."

I can hear Winkle's breathing grow harsh and she squeezes me tighter than I thought possible for such a small woman but it doesn't hurt. It feels…nice.

"I don't know how long it took but finally I had the information I required. I stood up and turned away from her and she pleaded with me to give her morphine. To give her the help I promised."

"I told her that I lied and hobbled away. I found Bomber asleep in the truck and we returned."

"Jesus, Sheldon, she was still alive when you left? You left her alive? What if they found her?" It was a reasonable question even if she almost shouted it in my ear.

"I could see the fire reflected in their eyes, Les. I flipped down my NVGs and there they were, about 4 or 5 of them, shying away from the fire and waiting for me to leave."

"Them?"

I don't want to see the look of horror and loathing on her face so I turn away, wrenching free from her grasp before answering her.

"Coyotes."

* * *

WPOV

"Sheldon – " I start to say but stop when I see the look of utter despair on his face. It's his eyes that stop me. They're shimmering with tears and he's barely holding himself in check. I can feel his thigh trembling where I've pressed mine against him.

I want to hold him, hug him, and tell him everything's going to be all right but I know he'll bolt. This is not a touchy-feeling moment in his mind. He needs…he needs a shock to his system.

"Good. Good. I – I hope they took their own sweet time with her. I hope she suffered – " I blurt out before I can really engage my brain.

I'm not sorry in the least that Sheldon did what he did, but now I understand why he's turning himself inward, isolating himself from us. He's protecting us in his own weird way from what he fears he's become – some kind of soulless monster.

"Coffee's getting cold, Sheldon. Let's go get us a fresh cup and then maybe just sit around and talk about what we're going to do next. We've been here a week and although I love the pool and the tennis courts and the spa, I'm getting bored. How about it, Moon Pie?"

His eyes narrow and he glares at me, totally ignoring my attempt at humor and homing in on the one thing I know he truly detests.

"Don't call me Moon Pie!"

I'm still hanging on to his hand and he doesn't push me away when I hug him. Maybe things will be okay. Maybe he'll be able to put this behind him. I think Penny and I need to take a whirl at washing clothes and just having a little girl talk. I don't think that a promise made under such circumstances should be kept.

His girlfriend should know that he'll need a lot of TLC for a while.

Lucky bitch.


	20. Chapter 20

Do you know how long it took to type ths on a kindle? Be grateful. And forgive any ypos pls.

* * *

Chapter 19 Plague

"He did _what_?" Penny stared at Winkle as if daring her to repeat what she'd just told her.

"He left her to the coyotes and he thinks it makes him, I don't know, _unfit_ to be around us, the normal people. I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone but this…this is something you have to know about. You have to hold on to him, ground him, somehow make him see that what he did wasn't…"

"Wasn't a horrible thing to do? Is that it? I'd have done the same thing, Les, to get her to talk. We need to know what we're up against. Some of those ears…weren't adult-sized. They were kids' ears! I would have sat back and watched them tear her apart!"

* * *

Sheldon sat in front of the radios listening to static as he slowly moved the frequency dial through the entire spectrum. Sometimes he thought he heard a word or a voice through the static but it was probably wishful thinking on the part of his subconscious.

He wanted other people to join their group, to add their skills and perspectives to the mix and to do that he needed to find them.

Bomber brought him up a sandwich and one of the last Mountain Dews that they had. No one else would touch them but the tall physicist was burning the candle at both ends and he needed the energy.

"Any luck?" he asked, sitting down beside him. He had an idea and wanted to run it by Sheldon to see what he thought.

"My mind is playing tricks on me. Sometimes I think I hear a word or just a human voice but they never answer my transmissions."

"Shel, got a suggestion for you. I think that the mountains are playing hell with our reception and transmissions. Denver isn't that far but I think the mountains are blocking our signal. We need to get to higher ground."

Sheldon thought about it but how could they haul all this equipment up a mountain and what about power?

"We need to get our antenna higher since we can't relocate this stuff easily," said Bomber, already seeing the lights go on in the back of the physicist's eyes.

* * *

Bomber and Leslie drove into Douglas in the fuel truck to pick up the stuff he'd seen in the pharmacy. Penny quickly vetoed any thoughts Sheldon might have about going using his hip injury as the excuse.

She didn't want him to see what was left of the raiders after the coyotes got through with them. It would drive him deeper into depression so she kept him with her.

"Sheldon, they'll be okay. I want to take out those stitches and take a look at your leg, sweetheart. This is the perfect opportunity for us to get 'comfortable'. They'll be gone at least two hours so…"

Penny snipped out the last knotted stitch and tossed the dressing and materials into a plastic bag they would eventually burn in the trash barrel behind the bar. The redness was gone around the cut and it looked healthy although it still bothered her to look at it.

"Okay, baby, everything looks pretty good. I think a nap is in order, don't you?" She pushed him onto his back and pulled off his boots and then his pants. The bruise looked painful but not as swollen as before. Her own clothes were added to the pile on the floor and she scurried to get into bed and covered up.

She wasn't tired but wanted Sheldon to sleep. Penny assumed her favorite sleep position, her head on his chest and his arms around her.

He was asleep in seconds and she yawned and thought about a future full of healthy people and children.

* * *

The pharmacy looked exactly like they'd left it. No one had messed with the broken padlock they'd used to 'chain' the rear door closed. It took a few seconds to clear the small building and find what he was looking for.

"Les, find all the balloons you can and then help me muscle this tank into the back of the truck." Winkle found a case of 120 mylar balloons with various imprints on them. It tickled her warped sense of humor to think of 'Over the Hill' and 'It's a boy!' and several companions hauling the antenna wire 200 feet into the air.

Bomber's idea had been simple – if they couldn't move the equipment to the mountain, raise the antenna. If his scheme worked, they could even use the balloons to carry the antenna high above the ground when they finally got back on the road. It was simple and elegant.

Winkle disappeared and Bomber went looking for her, knowing where she'd gone. Maybe it was morbid curiosity or something else, but he found her using a metal cane from the pharmacy to push and prod at the mauled corpses in the street.

"No more ears or if there were, the coyotes ate them as appetizers. Check out the other bikes and see if there's anything on them we can use. No point in adding more shotguns to the armory and the one automatic weapon isn't even a 9mm."

She shivered and pulled the bulky parka around her, imagining Sheldon's actions that night.

"Ready, babe?" Bomber hadn't snuck up behind her but she was still startled. What if there'd been more than four? What if Bomber had been killed and not just wounded? What if he hadn't waited for Sheldom?

"Yeah. Let's see if your crazy idea flies, Bomber. God, it's frikkin' cold! I'm gonna stand in that shower for an hour…"

"Want some company?" he smirked, wrapping his arms around a woman who wouldn't have given him the time of day a year ago.

"Definitely. Maybe while you and Cooper are trying to get this thing up, I might persuade Penny to - "

Winkle had a girly laugh when she was taken unawares and it filled the street (turned coyote buffet) into something less forbidding when Bomber started tickling her. Oh, yeah…a shower buddy…

* * *

Sheldon awoke with a start, the woman's screams and pleas still echoing in his ears. Penny wiped off his sweaty chest and face with a wet towel and then dried him off. She'd listened to the sound of his steady heartbeat and knew the instant he went into the dream. She'd dressed hurriedly and then sat there, debating whether to wake him or…

"Tell me about the dream, sweetheart. I know it's about Douglas and the woman you left behind. Winkle thought I had the 'need to know'. But before you say one word, I want you to listen to my heart speak…Sheldon Cooper, I love you and it's not something that just 'happened'. And I would have left that bitch to the coyotes myself but…I would have stayed to watch. Those ears, some of them were so tiny…"

The sob caught her mid-sentence and any anger or anguish he felt about Winkle's treachery dissipated and he held Penny, his future, as tightly as their strange positions would allow and let her cry. It was what she needed.

It was what he needed – absolution.

* * *

Bomber traced the antenna wire from the apartment above the office to where it had snapped either from the weight of ice or wind, he didn't know.

'_Well, that explains that. Ten feet of antenna doesn't cut it.'_

He found a huge spool of antenna wire in a cabinet below the radios. Obviously the user had antenna problems in the past and was prepared for it.

Bomber was going to just wire it up when Sheldon suggested that, given the height they were intending to achieve using the helium-filled mylar 'special occasion' balloons that it would be wise to use something thicker or –

"Why don't we let Penny and Leslie braid several strands so that the antenna is thicker and less likely to break in wind or because we handle it so often?" suggested Bomber.

The four gathered around the helium tank and filled up 4 balloons, mostly white or blue since Bomber was concerned about someone (meaning the Select) seeing them. During the day they'd use something 'sky colored' and at night, the 'over the hill' black balloons.

It was an elegant solution to something no one had even considered. Sheldon kicked his mental ass for not considering it first.

'_I have got to get my head back into the survival game and concentrate on the here and now, not the past.'_

Easier said than done.

* * *

Bomber made first contact. He found the military rescue frequency called 'Guard' and sent out a request for contact.

"This is Deseret Station. Who are you and where are you?" No 'Hi, how are ya?' just straight to the point.

"This is one of four that met with your intel officers regarding the fuel stores in Nevada. There is a force of more than 400 raiders heading for Salt Lake City. They call themselves the – "

"The Select. Yeah. They were here. Most of them still are. The survivors are headed back the way they came."

"How many? We're on their path and may have to relocate." Bomber knew that even a few raiders could prove dangerous to the little group. They could not easily defend this place.

" We figure – " The voice stopped mid-sentence and Bomber listed to static. The damned antenna wire had parted.

* * *

It took the remainder of the afternoon to braid 5 stands of wire for the new balloon antenna. Considering the time of day, Bomber inflated several of the black balloons and then after a quick meal, he launched the antenna into the cloudy night sky.

All four huddled around the radios and Bomber had begun transmitting to the Deseret station for more than a half hour before giving up.

"Either something happened or they're not monitoring the Guard channel."

Just then another voice broke into the static. "…is Offut Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, calling any station on Guard…"

Next: Debates and Decisions


	21. Chapter 21

_**Good morning.**_

_**I have been getting a lot (like 3 or more a day) of PMs on my Penny/Sheldon shipper style…specifically that Sheldon is a self-absorbed, narcissistic, selfish, arrogant, and unfeeling prick who's only on the show to provide a comedic focal point for the other characters to react to, a foil, nothing more. 'Your characters are so OOC you should go to the fiction site and change the names'.**_

_**It kind of hurts, y'know? I guess I don't have a very good understanding of the whole Lenny/Penny & Shamy dynamic except that it makes my skin crawl because I see Leonard as using Penny to increase his self-worth and his image in the eyes of his peers and others. (Looky what I got in my bed and on my arm!) He always finds another girl quickly after a breakup whereas Penny seems to retreat and lick her wounds.**_

_**Amy normally never appears in my fics. I don't like her character nor the way she plays to Sheldon's weaknesses in her own sociopathic way.**_

_**I shall complete my versions of TBBT and hope others don't succumb to the BS criticisms of the Leopens. People like the Shenny dynamic as it's such a relief from the WWW (Whining White Worm aka Leonard) and the PAHP (Pudgy Air Head Penny) on the series.**_

_**I'll be quiet now and crawl back under my rock and consider retirement as have so many others in this genre.**_

_**Ranting Reparata**_

* * *

Chapter 20

Bomber shut down the radios about 11pm. They'd been unable to contact anyone else and hadn't reconnected with the air base.

Despite working hard and taking virtually no breaks, they weren't ready to leave the following day nor the day after. Just moving the sensitive radio equipment to the bus and finding a safe place to set it back up took hours. The days had been filled with tasks to prepare them for departure.

Sheldon had dumped the waste tanks in the bus and flushed the system out and had topped off the propane from the massive tank that supplied the resort and the bus was all prepped and ready for the next, and perhaps last, leg of their journey.

Penny drove the fuel truck with Sheldon riding shotgun. After a heated 'discussion', she'd finally given in and let him out of the bus. No one had objected when Bomber had suggested that the fuel truck lead the way.

"It's got weight distribution, knobby tires and ground clearance going for it. If it 'cuts trail' for the bus, we can avoid any problems with getting stuck. We can use it to tow the bus through any really deep snow with the cables."

They made all of 94 miles the first day. They would not be driving at night. Deep drifts and a few traffic snarls had slowed them down. Penny had lost her bearings more than once when the terrain flattened out after they drove out of the high desert region. There were no visible cues to what was roadway and what wasn't except for the occasional snow covered car on the roadside or in the traffic lane.

Leslie and Bomber checked out the rest stop and gave the all clear to pull the bus up. There were only a few cars and only one tractor-trailer rig in the parking area. They'd check them out more thoroughly in the morning.

Sheldon launched the antenna and black balloons into the gray sky. It was only 5:30 but it was already too dark to safely drive on the interstate so they fired up the radios and Winkle cooked spaghetti (sorry, Sheldon, no hot dogs left) and they sat around listening to Bomber send out his contact request on Guard (between bites).

They'd contacted a Royal Canadian Navy destroyer off the North American coast. The Choker had hit the crew hard and they were barely able to keep things functioning. They were heading for Seattle.

A ham radio operator in Grayling, Michigan who was a dairy farmer said he and his family wouldn't mind the company. Sheldon made a note of his location.

A woman on the east coast responded. She claimed that aliens had landed in South Carolina and were collecting people for experimentation. It was hard not to laugh but they all agreed she'd suffered an emotional trauma and that her story was pure hokum. At least Sheldon thought so. Penny just shivered and sat closer to him.

Leslie went out and wound down the balloons using a gizmo Bomber made and stuffed them into the trailer to be used the next night. It was cold and she thought she smelled snow in the air but wasn't sure and hoped like hell she was wrong. Snow would slow them down even more and she was as anxious as Penny was to get to Offut Air Force base and then on to Omaha and Penny's parents' farm. She wanted to find insulin for her boyfriend along the way.

* * *

"Baby, we don't have to stay with my folks, y'know? Maybe heading farther north is the right thing to do. I don't think Leslie cares as long as she can find insulin for Bomber."

Sheldon just nodded his head and kissed her deeply, initiating a make out session that led to a laughter-filled round of coitus. Penny was ticklish and Sheldon's fingertips plundered her 'weak spots'.

Her body writhed beneath his and soon laughter gave way to sighs and gasps and moans. In the afterglow of lovemaking, they talked about possible futures and slipped into sleep wrapped up in each other.

It began snowing shortly after midnight, big flakes that drifted down from a darkening sky and soon covered the landscape with several inches of new snow by daybreak.

* * *

Leslie made coffee and took Bomber in a cup and fought against the temptation to crawl back into the warmth and nap but duty called loudly.

Sheldon poured a cup of fresh coffee and wondered how long it would be before coffee became a valuable commodity instead of a morning habit.

He walked out and up the slight slope and sat at the cement picnic bench and looked out over the landscape and considered how difficult the driving would be in this weather. Leslie slid in beside him, grateful that he'd covered the bench with a plastic tarp so they wouldn't get their butts wet from sitting in the snow.

"I think we should hang around this place until the snow stops. We had trouble staying on the road yesterday. Today will be worse. We could take our time going through the vehicles and it wouldn't hurt to just delay en route, will it? Omaha will still be there even if we're a day or two later than planned."

"If Penny's parents are still alive, will you and Bomber stay at the farm." He made no mention of _his_ intentions and Leslie noted a note of wistfulness in his tone. It would be another change, another goodbye, probably a permanent one. Sheldon hated change and life had just tossed quite a few at him.

"I don't know, Shel. There are just too many unknowns in this equation to solve for 'x', y'know what I mean?"

He did. What if Penny's parents (assuming they survived) objected to his presence in her life? After all, her father was a vocal advocate for the relationship between Penny and Leonard and he surely knew all about the 'whacko' roommate from stories told around the dinner table by Leonard and Penny.

"How about you, Sheldon? Are you planning on staying with Penny or moving north?"

"I'll worry about my destination after she's safely at hers. I don't know, Leslie. Like you so astutely observed, there are too many variables in this equation to solve for 'x'." He paused for a moment, temporarily unable to think of a single reason not to stay with Penny but he knew her, certainly better than Leonard ever did, and he knew how susceptible she was to family pressures. He would burn that bridge when he came to it.

"Coffee will soon be a valuable commodity. I wonder if anyone will reopen trade routes between the northern and southern continents or whether we'll simply adjust to its absence. There will be many things no longer available."

They spent the next few minutes listing things that they'd miss. Bananas, certain fruits and vegetables were all imported and couldn't be grown north of the borders with Central and South America.

"Pineapples. I'll miss pineapples the most, Sheldon," said Winkle. Their coffee grew cold as each of them lost themselves in their thoughts.

A quick search of the cars and the semi yielded nothing except fuel the drained from the dual tanks of the large Mack truck. The group spent the day talking, dozing, plotting and planning. It was too windy to launch the balloon antenna so after a late meal, the two couples retired for the evening.

Penny had cramps and had been uncomfortable all day. Sheldon figured as much since wasn't her usual perky self.

"Penny, come sit between my legs and lean back against me – " He patted the bed and leaned back against the headboard.

"Sweetie, I'm not in the mood for – "

"You have cramps. I was just suggesting that I rub your abdomen for you and help alleviate your distress. Also, I have a surprise for you." He reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a bag of Hershey's Kisses and handed them to her.

"I remember how during your cycle you craved chocolate."

Penny soon fell asleep and Sheldon moved her around until they could both lie down and he quickly fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning brought almost a foot of new snow. Travel would be impossible but they could at least spend time seeking new radio contacts.

To conserve propane, they ran the bus' diesel engine for an hour out of every four and kept the bus warm and used the electricity generated by the bus to keep the refrigerator and lights working.

Winkle had figured that they'd have roughly 650 gallons of diesel to make the trip to Omaha but driving at slower speeds due to the snow and poor visibility and running the engine put a dent in their supply. She reworked Sheldon's figures. They would be forced to stop and check each and every truck for diesel.

It continued to snow throughout the night and there was another 8 – 10 inches of new snow when they woke up. The winds had picked up during the night and there were drifts of 3 and 4 feet in places.

They weren't going anywhere any time soon.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 21 Plague

Penny unwrapped a Hershey's Kiss and popped it into her mouth, feeling guilty for just a moment but then the taste filled her mouth and her guilt fled, replaced by 'happy endorphins'.

Her guilt stemmed from a conversation around the supper table the previous night when Leslie recapped her 'morning ritual' conversation with Sheldon.

The spent an hour talking about the things they'd never have again – like chocolate. It had been lively but depressing and by the time they'd cleaned up the supper dishes and gone through the radio ritual, they were all feeling a little down.

Penny opened Sheldon's computer and pulled down the atlas program he'd been canny enough to download before they left Pasadena.

'_Where would we all be without Sheldon? Probably rotting away in the ruins of Pasadena. God, Leonard would have freaked out and – '_

She stopped thinking about Leonard and concentrated on Sheldon Cooper, the man she shared her bed and future with. He was still her OCD whackadoodle but he'd matured, forced to confront constant changes in the environment and life and she was so proud of him she could just burst!

And he'd done it all for her – to insure her survival. If that weren't a declaration of love, nothing he said or did would top that.

She found their location easily and switched the view to 'satellite' and was surprised to see a small town less than 2 miles from where they were snow-bound. She tapped the location and a window popped up providing information about the town such as population, industry, motels and restaurants.

* * *

'I wonder…'Sheldon fretted over his friends and their 'expedition'. He checked the time every few minutes and wondered what they were doing and if they were all safe. The coach was suddenly a lonely cavern and so he launched the daytime balloon antenna and monitored the radios to keep his mind off – drat! Where the hell are they?

* * *

Almost the entire population of New Salem was in the tiny church - all 80 or so people, the survivors of the first pass of the Choker.

Leslie thought that they might have been cult members and Bomber agreed. They were all dead, huddled together in pews in family groups, the Dixie cups of some poison still clutched in some hands, the rest littering the floor.

Penny just stared in horror at the body of a mother holding her infant child…dead by suicide. It was too much for her and she stumbled out of the church into the gray morning and tried not to scream out; she was in such horrible emotional pain.

'_I'm so glad Shel isn't here. He would be so upset about the kids and that baby would have broken his heart just like it has mine. I know he tries to hide his feelings under all those layers but deep down, he's more caring and loving than anyone I've known except maybe my grandma. He just doesn't want to be vulnerable to any more emotional pain.'_

Penny climbed on her 4-wheeler and pushed the electric start and drove slowly through the snow down the empty street, checking out the storefronts. She knew better than to break Sheldon's 'Rule #2 – do not enter buildings without someone watching your back' and yet here she was, breaking his 'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'.

She stopped in front of the only store that might meet their needs and waited for the others. Penny allowed her mind to wander back to earlier that morning when they were preparing to leave.

"_Penny, please don't go. Let Bomber and Leslie Winkle explore the town you found. I don't see why – "_

_She'd kissed him to shut him up. They'd been over it again and again. Someone had to stay with the coach and besides, he still wasn't totally healed and a ride through questionable terrain on a 4-wheeler would only aggravate his injury._

_He walked out with her and followed her to the 4-wheeler and then he kissed her in full view of the others…and her toes curled and her one leg kicked back and up and she melted into his arms. Suddenly all she wanted was to drag him back to their room and make love to him but a) she was still on her period and b) they needed stuff and they had to go._

_Sheldon had crossed his arms across his chest and fixed her with a glare that dissolved into a look she'd never seen before – puppy dog eyes looking at her so sadly. "Should anything happen to you, Penny, I would be sore vexed to recover. Therefore, you must return, unharmed. To do any less would…please, be careful."_

"Penny for your thoughts, Penny," Winkle said, standing slightly behind her. Penny jumped off her 4-wheeler and shrieked in surprise, fumbling for the pistol grip of her MP-5.

"Jesus, Leslie, don't do that! You scared the hell out of me!"

"Good. You shouldn't wander off by yourself. You know his rule."

They recited it together_: 'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone', _and smiled.

"I suppose you're going to rat me out to him when we get back?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Blondie. Just don't wander off by yourself." She stopped walking back toward Bomber and impulsively hugged Penny who stiffened in surprise and then leaned against her.

"I'm glad Sheldon isn't here. That scene in the church would have pushed him off the edge, y'know? He's so tightly wound right now…Penny, you have to get him to dial down the intensity. We're stuck here for God only knows how long and he's like a caged bear."

"I know. His mind goes a mile a minute and every time we run into an obstacle, he blames himself for not anticipating it."

"Do you ever wonder…what would have happened if Leonard hadn't passed away but Sheldon had? I think we'd be dead or wishing we were. I was wrong about him, Penny, and about you, too, and I'm sorry."

"Is this like a Cali-girl group hug thing?" Bomber was grinning at them, wondering what girly secrets the two were exchanging.

Penny started laughing and Leslie just rolled her eyes at Bomber. Moment of crisis passed.

* * *

Sheldon was intently concentrating on a faint voice he'd picked up. He was using headphones but finally heard the pounding at the coach door and cursed himself for his failure to maintain a proper watch. He grabbed his parka and his shotgun and slipped out the back door and around the coach.

"May I help you with something?" he asked. The woman and small child standing in the snow at the bus's main entrance looked frozen.

The little girl, about 5 or so, screamed in surprise and her mother pushed her behind her. They were both wrapped in blankets and the little girl clutched on to her mother, hiding her face in her mother's blanket.

"Mister, we don't want no trouble but our car broke down and we've been walking since sunrise. We just want to maybe get in that truck back there out of the cold? We won't steal nothing and…and maybe we can do something for ya around here. Y'know, cook or…or something?"

"You don't want _any_ trouble, you mean. No, you can't crawl into the truck." The woman's face crumpled in on itself but she hardened her face and started to walk away towards the east.

"Why would you when the coach is warm and you're both welcome to sit with me and keep me company until my friends return? I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper, and you are?"

"I'm Tasha Myers and this is my daughter, Penny." She saw how Sheldon's eyes widened and for a moment she was afraid she'd stumbled onto a pedophile.

"That's my girlfriend's name. They both have beautiful green eyes. Well, now that the introductions are complete, would you like a hot beverage?"

He opened the coach door and offered his hand to Tasha but she just grabbed onto the doorframe and pulled herself up but allowed her daughter to accept Sheldon's hand up.

He motioned them both into the galley and busied himself making soup and tea and hot cocoa.

"Mrs. Myers, you're welcome to get out of those wet clothes and try to find BDUs or sweat clothes that might fit you. We've scrounged quite a bit since leaving Pasadena. Penny's got some children's clothing somewhere but I don't remember seeing any children's boots." They were both wearing sneakers and jeans that looked soaked from the snow.

"Excuse me a moment." He went back to the small bathroom and returned with towels. "You might want to dry your hair. In this weather, you have to stay as dry as possible."

The soup disappeared as did the tea and cocoa. The little girl sacked out on the couch after changing into something Penny had scrounged. Sheldon covered her with a blanket and impulsively pressed a kiss into her hair.

"Do you…did you have children, Dr. Cooper?" She saw what he did and it was obvious to her that this man liked children.

"Good Lord, no. I'm a bachelor but…someday, maybe, Penny and I might have children."

They exchanged stories of their histories and adventures. She'd been a waitress in some tiny Nevada town and after her husband died and things got really bad, she loaded up her car and daughter and headed out to some relatives in Lincoln.

"We're headed to Omaha. You're more than welcome to ride along. Lincoln isn't that far from our destination and we'll be happy to take you home and – well, if they're not there, you can come along with us to Penny's parents' farm outside Omaha."

"Why? Why would you do this for total strangers?" She was suspicious of the man's motives. Other than some women's clothes that might have belonged to anyone, there were no signs of any 'friends'.

"How many people do you think survived? We'll need everyone to help rebuild civilization. Every one has a skill or a talent that we might be able to use. Every life is precious now."

"Let's see what goes down in Lincoln, okay? I appreciate the ride. It's a long walk."

Sheldon studied the woman carefully. She was so guarded and secretive that he wondered if the story she told had been the truth. The little girl hadn't uttered a sound the entire time she'd been awake, not even when her mother took her to the bathroom to change clothes.

"Staring is impolite, Dr. Cooper. Didn't your mother teach you manners?" There was a damnable smirk on her face and Sheldon laughed at her.

"Didn't yours teach you not to lie? There aren't any relatives in Lincoln, Mrs. Myers, are there? And it's _Miss _or _Ms, _right?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Of course it does! If you're to join us on this trek we have to be able to trust you and not waste valuable time looking over our shoulders."

She debated telling him a sanitized version of the truth but somehow she felt compelled to 'lay it all out' for this strange man.

"I'm not married. She's my daughter but I have no idea where her father is. I – I was an 'exotic dancer' at a club and I – "

"Enough. It's your business. I presume you were involved in some tawdry business in addition to being a dancer. Let's let it go at that. I used to be a theoretical particle physicist but now I'm a part-time bus driver, truck driver, scout, scavenger and I've had to do things that I found to be morally reprehensible. We all get a fresh start thanks to the Choker, don't we?" He missed the double entendre of his words.

Tasha Myers was uncertain about the future but she was certain about this strange man who sat across from her and seemed to be able to see into her soul. She could trust him with her daughter and he would make a good father.

* * *

It was hard going for the two 4-wheelers. They were each carrying at least 100 pounds of food covered by a plastic tarp that was secured to the cargo rack with bungee cords. The ATVs seemed to sink deeper into the snow going back than they had on the way into the small town.

It was starting to get dark and even with headlamps, they were afraid they'd lose the trail since it had started snowing again and the wind was picking up, blowing snow filling in the older tracks that led back to the coach and safety.

They stopped in the shelter of a stand of scrub trees to decide what to do. They each had a sleeping bag bungeed across the handlebars, a plastic tarp similar to the one covering the food, and an emergency pack of rations and stuff courtesy of Sheldon Cooper.

"We need to stop here until daylight. I know Sheldon will be worried but he knows we have emergency gear and that we've lost the light and have to overnight here. We don't have any choice, Penny, so quit giving me the stink eye. He'd advise the same thing if he were here."

"But what if he thinks we ran into trouble? You know Cooper. He'll slog through the snow to try and find us or, in his worried mind, rescue us from whatever danger we're in. He won't just sit on his ass in that warm coach."

They both looked at Penny who was trying to see their original tracks in the dark. She wanted to jump on her ATV and push on but she also knew that Bomber was right…but so was Leslie.

"I – I think – I think he'd expect us to hole up until the weather clears. He'll be worried and pissed but it's what he'd recommend doing if he were here. Okay, let's push these 4-wheelers together and the drape the tarps over them to break this wind and bed down. I know I won't sleep a wink but…"

It took them just 15 minutes to construct a suitable shelter out of the tarps and then wedge themselves inside, wrapped in their sleeping bags. No one said anything and soon all three drifted off in an uneasy sleep.

* * *

"Okay, Tasha, here's where I have to trust you. I have to go find my friends. They're lost in this and I need to guide them back here."

He handed her a 9mm pistol and said, "I've already told you about Penny, Leslie and Bomber. If anyone else shows up, use the gun to protect you and your daughter. I shouldn't be long. I've set the thermostat and I just need to wind down the antenna and I'll be on my way."

Tasha watched him dress, surprised that they were so well equipped for the cold weather. She was really surprised when he slung a shotgun over one shoulder and clipped some sort of wicked military machine gun to his outerwear.

And then, with a wave and a strained smile, he was gone.


	23. Chapter 23

A**/N: Warning - this chapter deals with unsavory subjects and situations. No sex. You have been warned.**

**Why does Sheldon put his trust in someone he just met? He can 1) ignore his fears for Penny and his team or 2) extend trust and go find them. He has a fertile imagination and it's all explained and expanded upon here despite the spoilers published by one of my most ardent reviewers who I swear hacked into my notepad. That's how accurate she is. Or maybe great minds such as ours simply travel in the same direction?**

**To the guest who bailed after a comment, thanks for not inflicting this on yourself. Respect but indifference.**

**Reparata**

* * *

Chapter 22 Plague

Tasha didn't sleep at all and when she heard the ATVs approaching, she almost wept with relief. Being alone with her daughter in this strange vehicle all night had scared her to death and she hurried to make coffee and greet her new fellow travelers. She glanced outside and saw that dawn had broken and the sky seemed clear of snow clouds.

She wondered why Sheldon had finally decided to trust her, giving her a pistol and leaving her in control of their bus, effectively their entire life. She knew that it hadn't been an easy decision for him. Leaving her alone was a display of trust that she found difficult to understand but grateful for.

* * *

The two 4-wheelers crested the hill after a short ride of maybe 10 minutes and saw their home on wheels just a few yards away down the slope. They'd only been a few hundred yards from the coach when they decided to hole up and each of them now felt guilty for not pushing on.

They pulled up along side the coach and turned off their engines. Penny ran to the door and pounded on it to wake him up and give her a hug. She was all ready for his anger but knew he'd approve of what they'd done - eventually.

A young woman with a little girl tucked behind her opened the door and Penny stepped back and brought her MP-5 to bear. The woman held up her hand…

"Wait! Dr. Cooper isn't with you? He left last evening to find and guide you back. You didn't see him?"

Sheldon had explained that he would probably find them in a makeshift shelter somewhere along the path and not to worry. He'd just crawl in with them and spend the night if the weather was too bad to return.

"He did _what?!"_ Penny forgot to ask who she was and what she was doing in their bus but Winkle picked up the slack.

"Who are you and why are you here? Where's Sheldon?" Winkle had her weapon pointed at the dark haired woman. She hadn't seen the little girl but it probably wouldn't have mattered.

Tasha stuttered out her story and Penny and Leslie started for their ATVs but Bomber stopped them, grabbing Leslie by the upper arm and almost violently shoving her back towards the bus.

"No! I can make better time without you and he's going to need a ride back. Get warm clothes and soup ready for when I bring him back. He's gonna be cold."

He looked at Penny and Leslie with a smirk. "And pissed off beyond belief."

Bomber jumped on his 4-wheeler and took off along the trail they'd just made. It was easy to see where they'd gotten off the original track and he could see where Sheldon's footprints had run parallel to the faint depressions of their original path out to the town.

* * *

To the casual early morning observer, the snow-covered lump on the edge of the clearing would have looked like an old tree stump – that made snoring sounds. Sheldon awoke with a start and for a moment sat shivering in his sleeping bag until his brain came on-line and began processing data.

He pushed away the plastic tarp that had sheltered him against the stump and unzipped his thermal sleeping bad and stepped out of it. He quickly brushed off the snow and rolled it into a tight cylinder and secured it with bungee cords.

He looked around carefully and then unzipped and wrote his name in the snow. He got as far ad the 'D' before he ran out of pee. He could see his path from the bus and smiled in satisfaction.

'_Only a few feet off their track. I'll wake them and then we'll be back in the bus and drinking hot coffee and trading tales of nearly freezing to death in the wild.' _

He brushed snow off his backpack and secured the sleeping bag and tarp to it in his usual precise manner and then slung the shotgun over his shoulder and headed off in the direction of town.

Sheldon quickly got warm from his exertions and twice he lost the track but easily found it again. He didn't, however, notice the 'branch' the two ATVs made on their way back to the bus. In other words, he was still following the outbound track to town.

He knew he'd made a mistake when he walked past a mobile home, doors and windows wide open to the weather. There were two propane tanks on the tongue of the trailer and he made a mental note to retrieve them once he checked out the cluster of buildings that made up New Salem. He had a crescent wrench in his backpack for just such opportunities.

He walked down the center of the main street without paying much attention to his surroundings other than to note that his 'crew' had already been there. There were relatively fresh footprints and ATV tracks and he figured that somehow he'd missed them in the scrub woods or –

He checked the MP-5 and clicked off the safety. Maybe he hadn't missed them. Maybe they'd never left New Salem and were even now being tortured or worse by elements of the Select. The thought of Leslie or Penny being abused set his heart beating faster and faster and he called out their names as he ran towards the church at the end of the street.

* * *

Bomber stopped and shut down his 4-wheeler on a small rise. It hadn't been hard to follow his tracks and he saw where he'd set up for the night. The yellow 'SHEL' in the snow was a dead giveaway. There was a black column of smoke that he knew could be seen from miles around coming from the direction of the town.

'_Doc, what have you done now?'_

Bomber started his 4-wheeler and porpoised through the deep snowdrifts, going entirely too fast for safety but he had a feeling that the Doc was in trouble.

* * *

Penny was sitting on the picnic bench deep in thought about their situation – actually Sheldon's situation. She knew that he would do anything for his friends and she was torturing herself with thoughts of him lying in some gully or blow-down, his legs broken from the fall and slowly freezing to death.

She'd worked herself up into quite the worrisome lather and was seriously thinking of just jumping on the ATV and following Bomber into the brush but what if she were out there, searching, and he came back? Wouldn't it create a 'loop' situation? She smiled sadly at the Sheldonesque thought.

'_He's rubbing off on me. I can feel hibernating brain cells waking up every time he speaks. God, I've got it so bad for him!'_

* * *

Sheldon dug the hole in the nearly frozen earth using a shovel he'd found in the back of one of the pickup trucks parked behind the church. This was the last one of four and he felt a sense of satisfaction that colored his sadness. It didn't have to be the standard size or anything but he wanted it deep enough to keep scavengers from getting at her.

He had wrapped her in a blanket he found on the pew beside her mother and tucked it tightly around her, covering her face so it wouldn't get dirty or cold.

Bomber stood back and watched, not exactly sure what Sheldon was messing with. The church was fully ablaze and even this far from it, the heat was intense. And then he saw the four mounds and knew Sheldon had gone into the church, found the kids and buried them but what was he doing now?

Sheldon filled the last grave slowly, not wanting to bruise the tiny body but wanting to get the whole thing over and done with.

He got to his feet, his knee joints cracking from being on his knees so long, and poured gasoline on the dirt mounds to keep away scavengers. The parents could provide a hot lunch for any thing that wanted it. They deserved no consideration whatsoever in Sheldon's mind.

They had murdered their own children.

"Ready to head back, Sheldon?" He spoke quietly, almost reverently, not wanting to startle his friend, especially not when he had his filthy hand on the pistol grip of his MP-5 and a murderous look on his face.

"Yeah. I picked up some things for little Penny. Let me get them and then, yeah, let's get the fuck away from this place."

"Little Penny?"

"Tasha's daughter is named Penny also."

"Tasha? Oh, the woman with the pistol that Leslie went off on. What's her story, Doc?"

"We'll talk more with her when we get back. We've spent enough time here. I want to leave now." Any one who knew Dr. Sheldon Cooper a year earlier would have heard 'old Sheldon' in his voice and mannerisms.

* * *

Penny was perched on the picnic bench and was the first to hear the ATV's engine and she ran back to the coach to give them the good news and then ran back to greet them.

Bomber grinned when Penny squealed and ran to Sheldon and threw her arms around him, squeezing him. He wrapped her up in his arms and just held her. It was so good to be back 'home'. Home wasn't the bus. Home was in her arms wherever they were.

Leslie knew he'd gone into the church from the look on his face when he climbed up into the coach. His eyes were darting around the cabin and then lit on the little girl who was sitting almost on her mother.

"Hey, Penny Blossom, I brought you some things that you need and some things I hope you like." He sat down beside the girl and starting digging around in a plastic trash bag he always kept in his backpack.

"I got some pretty rubber boots so you don't get your shoes wet in the snow and some mittens and gloves and a hat with ear flaps to keep your ears warm."

He glanced up at Tasha and shyly asked, "I hope that was alright? She needs boots and gloves. I couldn't find a jacket that would fit her. Oh, and a nice long scarf."

The little girl, hereinafter Penny Blossom or just Blossom, pulled on the cap and smiled and it made Sheldon's day.

He turned away and dug into the bag some more and pulled out a coloring book and a box of crayolas and presented them to her as if they were crown jewels and got a hug as his reward and a smile from her mother.

Penny watched the scene unfold and had a stray thought about how good a father Sheldon was going to be to _their_ kids.

"I must have missed you guys in the dark. I spent the night quite warm in my sleeping bag covered with a tarp." He looked at Bomber and shook his head as if to say 'No' and continued. "Bomber found me and, well, here I am."

No one called him on his obvious lie. Penny knew he'd come clean later in private. She knew he hadn't found those things for the little girl in the snow despite what he wanted them to believe.

Bomber mouthed 'Later' to Leslie and then the two guys sat down and ate soup and drank coffee and got to know their two new team members.

The sun was shining and clumps of melting snow were falling from the trees that sheltered the rest stop. They talked about pressing on for Omaha in the morning.

"We have a detour to make. Tasha needs to be dropped off in Lincoln. She has friends or relatives there."

Penny saw the tic begin in the corner of his eye and knew he wasn't being truthful. One look at the expression on Tasha's face and she knew that Sheldon was lying.

* * *

Sheldon excused himself and showered and changed clothes and then closed himself up in their room and tried to reconcile what Tasha had said to what he'd seen in the church classroom where he'd found the coloring book and box of crayolas.

There were photographs of the church's 'families' on the wall and one caught his eye. It was of a man, his wife and daughter, laughing and sitting together at a table.

The little girl was Penny Blossom and the woman was Tasha Myers.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 23Plague

This chapter is almost entirely Penny-centric. Get over it. She's strong and caring and selfless and not the arm candy lush that the writers seem to think she is. Don't like? Don't efffn' read/

* * *

PPOV

If it's one thing I know for sure, Sheldon Cooper is wrestling with a problem that he doesn't really wish to solve. I saw how his face was pinched and judgmental when he and Bomber got back.

He was so sweet and caring with the little girl and I just knew right then that for all his wackiness, for all his annoying schedules and his penchant for childish things, that Sheldon would be a great father.

Perhaps it's because he never had the opportunity to play with other kids and have a normal childhood that when confronted with a child with 'play needs' he's so superbly equipped – because a part of 'little Sheldon' never got integrated into 'growing up Sheldon' and now is allowed 'out to play'?

I don't know but I love seeing this side of him.

But then I saw how he glared at Tasha and then just as quickly put on his 'Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD' persona and quietly ate his soup and drank his hot beverage. He was antsy, if that was a proper word, and finally excused himself from the table saying he wanted to shower and change clothes.

I wanted more than anything at that moment to also excuse myself and join him in the tiny shower and wash his back and just enjoy the closeness that the tiny enclosure would require. It wasn't sex I was after. I wanted to break down his walls and get him to tell me everything that had happened to him.

His eyes were the windows to his soul and one glance and I could see the pain he was in. What had happened that made him close himself off from all of us? From me?

I found myself staring at the woman across from me. She was pretty although careworn but we pretty much all looked that way. She was obviously an attentive mother, frequently glancing into the main lounge and checking up on her daughter.

"So, Tasha, you're coming with us? Good. Someone else to share the driving," Winkle said.

"Just as far as Lincoln as Dr. Cooper said. I have…family there and it's as good a place as any to start over." Again she glanced back to check on her daughter.

The conversation died for a few moments until Winkle asked Bomber about his morning excursion and just where he'd picked up Sheldon. The girl's coloring book, box of Crayola crayons and her boots and other things were not something Sheldon had found on a stump.

Bomber had previously stated, with the best of intentions, that it was for Sheldon to say but Leslie and I had a right, no, a need to know what had happened.

"I've never seem that look on his face before, have you, Penny?" she asked me. Winkle was good, I'll give her that. She was coming at Bomber from the side and he looked like one of those lemurs, all eyes, as he saw what was coming, the Penny-Winkle Express, but was unable to avoid it.

"Once before. When the guys sabotaged his data for his Monopole experiments at the North Pole. It was the look of 'betrayal' and it took a while for it to go away…a long while." I was looking at Tasha and she looked away but not before I saw how her eyes were all shiny with unshed tears.

"He followed our tracks into town. I guess he missed the ones coming out but it was dark and snowing and windy – " Bomber started to explain but Winkle interrupted.

"Oh, no!" Winkle started to stand but Bomber had a hand on her shoulder and forced her to sit back down. He looked at me with a plea for support.

"He was digging graves…for the kids. He used a shovel he found someplace and he was burying the baby when I got there. He had set fire to the church but had taken the kids' bodies – "

"He – he burned down our church?" Tasha's voice wasn't loud but there were undercurrents of something in it that made my hair stand on end – like satisfaction or elation. She certainly wasn't _un_happy about it.

"Yeah. He muttered something about a 'hot lunch for the scavengers' and then said he wanted to leave so we did after stopping to pick up some stuff he said we needed. He already had stuff in a plastic bag but he wanted stuff for your little girl."

Winkle changed the route on the Penny-Winkle Express.

"_YOUR_ church, Tasha? But you told Sheldon you'd come over from Nevada or someplace and your car ran out of gas and – "

Tasha looked frantic and said, "I lied! If I'd told him that my entire community had committed suicide and that I had fled with my baby girl he would have turned his back on us and – "

I quietly interrupted her. I couldn't let her continue. So, okay, 'quietly' might be an understatement, but so what?

"NOT Sheldon Cooper, Tasha. Sheldon would never turn his back on someone in need, and certainly not someone with a little kid! Bomber joined us on the road but not because we needed a stud for Winkle but because he was in trouble and we could help."

I stood up and brushed imaginary crumbs from my sweats and looked at Winkle who was glaring at Tasha but was also holding Bomber's hand in a death grip.

"I need to talk to him and make sure this doesn't send him into a depressive spiral," I glanced at Leslie, "like he was in before he came up with this crazy assed idea of getting me home to Omaha."

"Go on, Penny. Go take care of Shel. Bomber and I will keep Tasha company and since she's from around here, learn if there are any other towns that we can forage around for stuff we'll need in the future."

As I made my way back to our room I heard Leslie say to Tasha, "Why Lincoln? Are there more of these crazy cultists there? Are you joining them or what?"

* * *

The door's closed and for _really _the first time in my life I wish I was smarter because I'm about to go head to head with the world's smartest man and drag his ass kicking and screaming back out of the dark place he's in. And walking in and singing 'Soft Kitty' ain't gonna get it.

I don't want to wake him if he's asleep so I whisper his name from the open door.

"Sheldon? Are you awake, sweetheart?" He's lying on his side and I can't see his face but I can hear his breathing and it sounds 'labored', like he's got a bad chest cold and trying not to cough.

I toe off my sneakers and am in bed and spooned against his back before I know it. My body seems to have a much more attuned 'Sheldar' than my brain does.

He's trying to keep it together but I know he's hurting. This is the one place he drops his armor of eccentricity and becomes my Shel, my lover and my dearest and sweetest friend.

I lean up and rest my head on my palm, my elbow on the mattress and I wrap my right arm around him, pulling him as close to me as possible.

"Talk to me, honey. It's not good to keep all this shit bottled up, you know that. Tell me what's going on in that beautiful mind of yours," I whisper.

I hear him sigh and it's as if the weight of the world has fallen on him. I roll over him quite lithely and I think I've surprised him from the look on his face.

I'm an inch from his face and my position mirrors his, head resting on my arm, eyes open and a slight smile on my face. Well, okay, Sheldon's not smiling. His lips are white and pressed together so tightly that he has to be breathing from his nose.

"Sheldon Cooper, no matter what happens in the days ahead, we'll handle it together, I promise. Now, what's wrong?" I'm still whispering, enjoying the intimacy it implies.

Another sigh. I smell the vegetable soup on his breath and realize that whatever's on his mind has superceded (more awakening brain cells) his rituals like brushing and flossing after any meal, and that means…trouble.

"Is this all there is now? Death? Killing each other, our selves, our children? They killed their children and then committed suicide. What despair they must have felt to do such a thing?" He is whispering also, but not for the sake of intimacy but rather to avoid giving true voice to his fears.

His words stun me and I can hardly see his face through my blurred vision. For a moment I hate myself for not pushing on last night and saving him from discovering just how desperate things have become for some, for most.

"No, Sheldon, no. We won't let that happen to us, to our future. Those people gave up, they surrendered to their own despair and that's not us, my love, we're Queen P and Sheldor, we never give up, we never surrender!"

The corners of his mouth twitch and then he smiles, closed mouth, but still a smile.

"Galaxy Quest, Penny? You know how we all…" His voice falters. There is no more 'we'. There's just 'us'.

We wrapped up in each other's arms and I dozed off for a few minutes and when I awoke, he was gone. I felt a moment of panic but relaxed when I heard his voice in the companionway explaining to Tasha how the shower worked and the two-minute rule but since she had a child, it was waived for the immediate future as long as it was not abused.

His voice reminded me of how he'd explained the roommate agreement as it applied to 'proper notification of overnight guests' and how often I and…how often Leonard and I had violated it and thus the 'strikes'. There was an almost hostile and 'put upon' quality to it that I haven't heard in a long time.

He's angry with Tasha and he was trying so hard not to show it but I know my Sheldon and it was obvious to me.

I just don't know why but I mean to find out. Maybe our discussion broached the wrong topic or I just didn't know to dig deeper.

I stepped out into the companionway and scooted by Sheldon, giving his butt a little squeeze; his voice didn't falter one bit. I must be losing my touch.

* * *

Leslie had told Sheldon everything she'd learned from her grilling of Tasha Myers. The pastor of their church had had a 'vision' that it was the End of Days and that the faithful would sacrifice themselves and escape the worst of what was to come.

Tasha's husband was mesmerized by the pastor's words and had gulped down the poisoned Kool Aid with a smile on his face and died within seconds, holding her hand to give her strength but leaving her alone to murder their daughter and then take her own life – something she'd never do.

She had grabbed her daughter and blankets and run into the woods towards the interstate where she hoped to find an abandoned vehicle or a ride.

Lincoln was the first 'destination' that popped into her mind when Sheldon had first questioned her and the lie had grown until she herself almost believed it.

"Does Sheldon know the truth?" I asked Leslie, knowing how much he hated being lied to.

"Yeah, and he had little Blossom sitting on his lap the whole time. Tasha begged him to let her stay with us. There's nothing and no one for her in Lincoln."

I knew my guy better than most. There's no way he would turn Tasha away to fend for herself in this day and age.

"Have you made up the new driving schedule?" The matter was closed to further discussion. Our family had grown by two.

* * *

We totally bypassed Lincoln and headed straight for my folks' farm northwest of Omaha. The Air Force base at Offut would be there after we learned what had happened to my parents.

"There's the turn up ahead, honey! I'm so…" Sheldon's bare left hand covered mine and gave it a squeeze. He'd come so far in so little time. Months ago the very idea of touching my hand spontaneously in reassurance would never have occurred to him. He would have patted my arm and said, "There, there, Sheldon's here," and he would have been, too. He's always been there when I needed him.

We were driving the fuel truck, still breaking trail as it were, although really it was because I knew where we were going and if drifts blocked the road, I knew all the shortcuts. We were losing the light and I flipped on the NVGs and dusk turned to bright green daylight.

We're a hundred feet from the house and I start blowing the horn because there are lights on! I glance over at Sheldon and I see his mouth in that tightlipped grimace that means he's wrestling with a problem – probably how to explain to my dad that he's been poking me with his thing.

I start to giggle and he turns his head and that shy smile I so dearly love breaks out. "Are you fit to drive, Penny? It would be terrible to have come so far and done so much and only to die in a fiery crash because you're hysterical."

I just giggle at him and then blurt out "I love you, Sheldon Cooper. Marry me?" Okay, so it wasn't the most logical thing to say but I wanted to have my Mom and Daddy meet – Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD, my fiancé and the guy who saved my life.

His face turned pasty white and I could see his lips move but nothing came out. I'd never seen Sheldon rendered speechless by anything or anyone before and it was so precious…

"Yes, Penelope." That was all he said but it was more than enough. I leaned over and laid a wet smooch on his cheek and he yelled, "Penny! You're driving!"

I just chuckled and continued blowing the horn. We were just pulling up in front of the house when my mom and dad stepped out onto the verandah followed closely by another man that I instantly recognized.

Kurt.

I stopped in front of the house and turned off the diesel engine and jumped out of the cab and ran around the front of the truck and up the steps and threw my arms around my folks, laughing and crying at the same time.

* * *

SPOV

I sat in the cab, watching the homecoming. Of course I recognized Kurt from my encounter back in Pasadena when we had tried to retrieve Penny's television set and lost our pants in the process.

I'd met Penny's father briefly when Wyatt had visited his daughter in Pasadena but Leonard had spent the most time with him since they were between breakups. I assumed that the woman is Penny's mother.

I retrieved my MP-5 from the floorboards of the cab and hooked it to the D-ring on my parka, more out of habit than anything else. I clicked on the walkie-talkie and told Winkle to assume over-watch until Penny gave the 'safe' sign even though I know she's safe with her parents.

I see Penny hugging Kurt and I'm uncertain what to do. Penny just asked me to marry her and now she hugging on another man – a man with whom she has a long sexual history. I have no idea what to do so I open the truck door and slide down to the snowy driveway and walk up to introduce myself to Penny's folks.

I'm angry and jealous and a lot of other emotional states that are contending for dominance with my head. I'm not good with reading facial expressions but I can see something like distaste on Wyatt's face and utter horror on Penny's mother, Jennifer.

"Winkle, something's off here. Target the large man currently embracing my fiancé."

Penny somehow breaks Kurt's grip on her and stumbles backwards a step but the rears back and punches him hard in the throat. Kurt staggers back and then points the pistol he's been hiding beneath his coat right at Penny.

I key the walkie-talkie to demand that Winkle – BLAM! Kurt's head seems to bulge and then he falls against the front of the house and then flops around on the porch like a poorly decapitated chicken. His foot twitches a few times and stops.

Penny pushes her parents to the left front of the house just as two large angry men try to get out of the front door at the same time.

Winkle fires twice and there are now three messes I'll have to clean up on the porch. I have to smile at the brief memory of both men stuck in the door like some slapstick comedy program. Their plight provided the perfect opportunity for Winkle to take out both men.

My walkie-talkie crackles and I hear Leslie's voice announcing that there are no other heat sources in the house. I am so glad I picked up that thermal imagery device when I looted the National Guard Armory. It almost makes me believe that 'someone up there' is watching over us.

Almost.

"Let's meet Penny's parents and find out what is going on here. I didn't see the danger signal but Penny seemed rather preoccupied until she punched him."

Wyatt makes his to me after Penny and her mom step over the bodies on the porch and disappear inside but not before Penny viciously kicks Kurt's corpse a few times. The door closes and Wyatt grabs my hand and shakes it.

"Is Leonard with you? You're the roommate, right?"

"Leonard is dead. Yes, I'm the roommate." Something in me whispers that my engagement might be the shortest on record when Wyatt asks, "When are you leaving? You can't stay here."


	25. Chapter 25

Real life intruded. Sorry for delay and quality of this tripe.

Re[arata

* * *

Chapter 24 Plague

Last time: _"Is Leonard with you? You're the roommate, right?"_

"_Leonard is dead. Yes, I'm the roommate." Something in me whispers that my engagement might be the shortest on record when Wyatt asks, "When are you leaving? You can't stay here."_

I take a step back and then turn around walk back towards the fuel truck, stunned at Penny's father's bluntness and not wanting him to see the look on my face. No 'thanks for saving my daughter's life' or anything else, just 'You can't stay here'.

Somehow my brain engages and I realize the implications of his statement and I key the walkie-talkie and tell Winkle to "pack up Penny's stuff, including her weapons and her share of the ammo and take it up to the house. She's staying. We're not."

This situation had never occurred to me, not in my wildest dreams or darkest 'what if' scenarios. My face felt like it was made of molten fire and somewhere deep inside me where the real 'me' lives, I heard a scream of rage at the injustice of the Universe but I have a moral and social obligation to the other members of our party to press on without Penny.

Penny's father had followed me and when I felt his hand on my shoulder I stopped, let the wolf rise up, and I turned and snarled at him, the MP-5 automatically pointing at him.

Now it's his turn to step back but the look on his face is fear and then blossoming comprehension.

"Oh, no, no. You don't understand. Penny goes with you. It's not safe for her here. You saw those – those animals. First they came for our food and left us barely enough to survive and then they came to take whatever else they wanted. She can't stay. It's not safe for her here. Others will come and – please, you have to take her with you."

"How long will it be before they're missed?" I ask, gesturing toward the bodies on the porch.

I have something I rarely have – a hunch – an assumption made without any evidence to support it. It was something so unlike me to do that for a moment I felt myself slip into a wait-state as if awaiting the input of additional data.

"Tomorrow or the next day. What difference does it make – they'll come and they'll take her and I won't be able to stop them! A bunch of low-lifes have taken over the air base, Offut, yeah, Offut…the other one got nuked. Most of the people there died off and they're using it as a base while they 'tax' us for provisions and women."

Sheldon reached a tentative hypothesis, set about his experimental parameters and then reached a conclusion. He keyed the walkie-talkie and broke squelch, wincing at how loud and out of place it seemed.

"Leslie, never mind. She's staying with us. However, we're adding two additional guests to the Tour, married adults, so please plan accordingly. We'll spend the night here, strip the place of anything useful and leave in the morning."

Sheldon turned to Wyatt with a half-smile and asked, "I made an assumption on your behalf. Would you rather remain here and take your chances? We're heading for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because we believe the Choker will mutate again in the spring. It's your choice, of course. We'll squeeze you in somehow. I'm sure Penny would want you to accompany her if only because life is so uncertain these days."

Wyatt's mind was churning over the events of the past few minutes.

"Let me talk to Jennifer. If we do decide to join up with this 'Tour' of yours, we'll bring our own transportation. We have a motor home that's seen a lot of the country. It will do Jennifer a world of good to spend some time with Slu – Penny."

He immediately saw the change in the tall man's face and almost smiled. Almost, until he remembered Leonard's stories about how crazy he was and they'd all laughed and Penny had laughed the longest. Some of her stories about the 'whackadoodle' roommate were hard to believe.

Yet here he was, obviously an in-charge survivor type and he couldn't help but wonder if they'd be standing here in 4 inches of Nebraska snow if Leonard and Penny had stayed together.

Wyatt watched as the tall man turned and spoke rapidly into a radio and then walked past him and onto the house porch. Another man stepped out of the bus and waved to Wyatt and then followed this Sheldon character up on to the porch and helped him drag the bodies out into a field.

* * *

"Hi, I'm Dr. Leslie Winkle and that short guy is Bomber, an ex-Air Force pilot. Fill me in on the local situation, will ya? Sheldon's got enough on his plate and it's been a long road to get your daughter home safely."

There was a certain irony to the young woman's tone and Wyatt was shaken from his reverie, surprised at her sudden appearance.

"Sorry. This is all just a little bizarre. You're all from Pasadena? How long have you been on the road? And what the hell is that RV you're driving? Is that armor of some kind?"

"Come on in an meet the others and we'll talk over coffee. It's running low but I think this is a special occasion. So how long have those assholes been around here?"

* * *

"I forgot the shovel, Doc. Be right back," said Bomber.

"Whatever for? This is better than they deserve and I didn't want Penny's mother to have to see the bodies considering all she's been through."

"Um, what? Penny's mom…oh, shit." It sickened him that people had sunk so low so quickly.

Sheldon stripped everything of value from the bodies, including a short-range radio and then walked back to the bus, leaving Bomber wondering again about what was going on in his head.

"Bomber, the air force base at Offut, the one we thought would offer us sanctuary? Well, guess where these pieces of excrement call home?"

Sheldon stopped and laughed and turned to Bomber and said, "Have you ever read Sun Tzu, Bomber? I think we should launch the balloon antenna and plant some seeds in our enemies' minds. I'm tired of running and looking over my shoulder. After all, 'the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting'."

* * *

They launched a 'nighttime' balloon antenna and Bomber transmitted an hysterical message to whomever was monitoring the Guard frequency at Offut.

"We contacted you while we were holed up in Wyoming, remember? Well, we're stuck in drifts on the interstate about 60 miles west of Lincoln. Listen, there's a buncha religious fanatics called the Armageddon Brigade and they're headed your way. They kill everyone because survivors are 'minions of Satan'. They cut my friends' heads off! You gotta send help…please…"

He told them that 'mechanized units' from the "Armageddon Brigade" were closing in on Omaha from the west and north, clearly threatening Offut.

Leslie had been standing behind him, listening as he read from the script she'd hastily put together after listening to Sheldon's logical outline of action.

When it seemed like Bomber really had their attention and was begging for a 'relief force' she leaned down and stuck her tongue in his ear.

The resulting screech of surprise added a horrifying realism to his pleas.

She turned off the transceiver and stepped back, satisfied that the 'seeds' had been planted and would buy them a day or two of rest and refitting.

"What the hell was that for, Les?"

"Just needed you to sound startled when I cut off the power. Imagine what they must be thinking now?"

Sheldon Cooper wasn't the only one with a warped and twisted sense of the macabre – but the morning would bring a new sense of appreciation for just how far Sheldon Cooper would go to protect the people in his life.

* * *

It was well after 3am when Penny finally left her childhood home and trudged through the snow to the bus and her warm bed and hopefully a little cuddling with Sheldon while she tried to forget what had gone on during the past months here.

She and her mom had had a long talk, probably the kind of talk a mother and daughter never normally have, but these were far from normal times. Penny's mom had been straight forward with her explanation of the repeated assaults, her father's desperate attempts to stop them, all of it.

Penny was numb. She needed his comforting silence as he listened to her. He was really a good listener, especially when he didn't have to see her face for what he called 'visual cues' to figure out the underlying meaning of her words.

Penny kicked the snow off her boots and jerked open the coach door just as Sheldon was stepping out.

He wrapped her up in his arms and just held her while she cried as quietly as she could. Sheldon was almost always at a loss during these times but he knew she needed a physical anchor and he gave her one, almost carrying her up into the coach and easing her into the kitchenette booth.

"Penny, there is something I have to do and I have to do it now or it won't get done. By the time you've finished your coffee I'll be back and then I think you need a 'cuddle' session and as much sleep as you can. We're leaving tomorrow or the next day and your folks are joining our little convoy. You can ride with them and keep your mom company if you like."

He was back before she was even aware he'd left.

"Sheldon, there's blood on your sleeves! Did you hurt yourself?"

"No, Penny. It's not mine. Can you drive a snowmobile?"

The shift in the conversation startled her. "Yeah, sure. It's like a motorcycle only with treads. Why?"

"Oh, I found three back behind the barn and I thought they might come in handy, that's all."

* * *

The convoy left the farm and headed north a day later. No one said anything about the gruesome displays that decorated the gate posts that fronted the road.

Penny and her mother sat in her folks' RV and talked until her dad pulled out onto the highway. Her mother gasped in shocked surprise but turned and looked at her daughter with a soft smile.

"That whackadoodle of yours sure knows how to make a statement."

Each of the gate posts sported a human head with a crudely crayoned word on cardboard nailed to the post.

One word was 'Rapist'.

Another was 'Thief'.

The last was 'Animal'. It was tacked to the gate post below Kurt's head.

They hit the interstate and headed north, stopping at each rest stop and small town, searching for diesel fuel, food and anything else that anyone felt might be of value.

Wyatt's RV towed a cattle trailer full of bags of seeds, farm implements and keepsakes from their home. And three Polaris snowmobiles courtesy of Kurt and his decapitated friends.

Next: Crossing the bridge to nowhere


	26. Chapter 26

A**/N An interesting observation: Almost all reviews occur in the first two days after posting even though 80% of hits occur after the 3rd day of posting. Curious.**

**Also I've had to re-plot the destination of our intrepid band of refugees after being advised that not much grows on the U.P. except rocks and trees.**

**Thought I'd make the road trip a wee bit more interesting for the flagging readership who remain. Thank you for your continued patronage. Have a nice day.**

* * *

Chapter 25 Plague

The convoy was running low on fuel reserves – Sheldon's idea of reserves being at 120% of anticipated needs. The Ford's RV was a gas hog from the 90s but it was in excellent mechanical shape considering its age, but it still drained the convoy's gas reserves at an alarming (again for Sheldon's concerns) pace.

The original plan was to take I80 eastward but Penny's dad knew of a large fuel distributor located in Harrigan, just north of Avoca, Iowa, so they left the interstate and headed north on windswept secondary roads to check it out.

Penny sat in the jump seat between her parents and they talked about anything and everything – except what had happened at the farm before she and her friends showed up. Apparently her parents had reservations although she and her mom had spent hours talking and crying together over what had happened.

"So, Slugger, tell me all about you and this 'Whack-job' guy. When you and Leonard were here you told us some crazy tales about this Sheldon and now you're – "

"He saved me, Daddy. He made all this happen and he didn't even intend to come with me at all. He just wanted me to get home safely. Pasadena was a ghost town and then Los Angeles caught fire and – and I was wrong about him. We all were. There's more to Moon Pie than just his weird clothes and schedules and physics."

"Moon Pie?" her mother asked, with a laugh in her voice. "I suppose he drinks RC Cola, too?"

"His Meemaw called him that and…and so did I but mostly just to get a rise out of him. He always got so flustered."

"Well, your Moon Pie scared the crap out of me when I first met him. He misunderstood me when I said 'you can't stay'. It was like someone flipped a switch and he went all cold and I thought he was going to shoot me but he just told someone on the radio to pack your stuff and then get ready to leave."

Wyatt would never forget the brief surge of pain he read in Sheldon's features before they got all stiff and cold. His eyes…he'd never forget that look. The boy had serious mental health issues unless he was mistaken.

Penny blurted out, "I asked him to marry me, Daddy, just as we pulled up to the house. We've…we have this thing between us and it's real so don't lecture me on how it's this situation we're in. I felt it before all this but – ". She stopped, not really wanting to acknowledge the truth, even to herself.

"But what, honey?" her mother prodded her gently.

"I was ashamed of my feelings. He was…such an idiot about stuff even though he's one of the five smartest people on the planet – probably _the_ smartest one now. He didn't fit into my worldview and I sure as hell couldn't fit into his."

Penny talked almost nonstop about all the things that they'd done together before the Chocker and after, giving them a 'sanitized' version of the Douglas episode but stressing how committed he'd been to getting her home or someplace safe. To getting them _all_ somewhere they could start rebuilding in safety.

She almost whispered her last sentence. "I'd be dead right now, or worse, Daddy, if Leonard had survived and my Moon Pie had been the one taken by the Choker. We all would have been. Of that I have no doubt."

"So when do I get to meet my future son-in-law, Penny?" her mother asked, really smiling for the first time in ages.

* * *

A mile north of the Avoca exit they came upon one of the truck stops that served long-haul truckers during normal times and pulled in to spend the night. Bomber and Sheldon walked around the lot, making sure there were no 'surprises' while Penny and Winkle checked out the restaurant and gift shop.

There were four tractor-trailer rigs in the 'rest area' but the real treasure was a gasoline tanker truck that bore the logo and name of the distribution center they were heading for.

Penny and her mom hooked up with Leslie and Tasha and checked out the restaurant and 'facilities'. There was no power so anything in the reefers was spoiled but they hit the mother load in the kitchen storage area – canned goods in bulk sizes, potatoes and onions, still good and a welcome addition to their MREs and scavenged goods. Someone had obviously been there before them but had used very little and what they found was still edible. They started filling up boxes to carry back to the bus and the RV. Most of it would go into the trailers for later.

Jenny Ford immediately took Penny Blossom under her wing, talking to her and trying to prod the little girl with such huge eyes to say something. Tasha Myers just smiled approvingly and then went to see what else she could find that might be useful.

The older woman could be trusted and she felt further unburdened when Jenny had hugged her and whispered that 'any time you need to talk, Tasha, I'm here for you'.

Their eyes met and each knew that the other was a kindred spirit. The hug she got from Jenny surprised her but not as much as the whispered 'I know, Tasha, I know'.

She decided to check out the gift shop for coloring books or games for her daughter. Penny had filled up almost all the pages in the coloring book that Dr. Cooper had found for her and she would need new crayons soon. Dr. Cooper always praised her work, especially when she created 'aesthetically pleasing color contrasts', whatever the hell that meant.

Tasha forgot about Dr. Cooper's _'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'._

* * *

Sheldon and Bomber were checking out the tanker truck to see if they could get it to start so that they'd have power to the gauges and determine how much fuel there was in the tanker.

They heard sharp 'Crack – Crack – Crack' of a 9mm pistol and ran to the restaurant, joined by Wyatt who had Sheldon's shotgun and looked ready to use it. His wife and daughter were in there.

Penny stood just inside the gift shop, not moving, her pistol still pointed at the 'thing' she'd killed. Her mom had Tasha in a death grip and was dragging her out of the gift shop when the guys ran in, ready to do battle.

"Some guy came out of nowhere and…Dr. Cooper, Penny needs you. She killed…" Jenny quit talking and led Tasha to the restaurant.

Sheldon eased up beside Penny and placed his hand over the pistol, not trying to take it from her but prepared to stop her from pointing at anyone else.

"Penny," he whispered in her ear, "it's okay, Penny. You stopped him rather effectively. Look, it's okay to feel bad about killing someone but if ever a man deserved it…it was this piece of excrement."

She let go of the pistol and it would have fallen to the floor if he hadn't had a grip on it.

Penny grabbed Sheldon by his open field jacket and jerked him as close to her as she could and wrapped her arms around him underneath the jacket and cried.

Sheldon hated it when women cried. He had no idea of the proper social protocols but he did know that 'there, there' and a pat on the back weren't going to cut it.

"Penny, please don't cry. I hate it when you cry. I feel useless when you cry over something I can't fix, not that I'd even entertain the notion of seeking medical help for this 'person' even if such help were available, and it clearly isn't. Please, Penny…"

"Shut up, Moon Pie, you're fixing me right now. Just hold on and never let me go. I – I never killed anyone before, Shel. This is how you felt outside of Barstow, wasn't it?"

"Penny, I'm not telepathic but if you're feeling guilty for taking a life, then yes, that's how I felt then. Don't let it drag you down, Penny. Stay in the light."

"You've been reading Winkle's trashy romance paperbacks, haven't you?" She wiped her nose on his BDUs and cringed but all he did was chuckle.

"I think a hot beverage is in order. Let's go back to the RV. Maybe you should talk with your mother. After all – "

"No, Sheldon. I don't need my mother. I have a man in my clutches and I'm not letting him go anytime soon – maybe not ever."

"But Penny, how am I supposed to use the bathroom or – "

She slapped his chest but quickly reattached herself. "Moon Pie, I was speaking figuratively not literally."

* * *

Bomber and Wyatt did a thorough search of the large building and found no other surprises.

The group spent two full days at the truck stop, going through the trailers and loading up everything of 'value' and headed out. Wyatt drove the tanker truck that contained about 600 gallons of diesel fuel and 1800 gallons of gasoline in its divided tanks.

Tasha drove the RV while Penny's mom rode with her and kept an eye on Penny Blossom who was diligently coloring in her new coloring book that her mother found in the gift shop.

Bomber drove the coach and Penny and Sheldon handled the army fuel truck – well, Penny did. Sheldon sat and did what he did best... he thought.

They headed south and picked up the interstate again and then headed east across Iowa towards Madison, WI. They planned to make the leg in one day but the weather soon made driving treacherous and the convoy stopped in the middle of the interstate highway for the night.

* * *

Penny showered and then crawled into bed beside Sheldon. She'd eaten dinner with her parents in their RV and then had a quiet talk with them about the future.

They made love slowly despite Penny's attempts to 'speed things up' but once Sheldon Cooper set out on a planned activity, he would brook no interference with his 'schedule'.

He tortured her, kept her hanging at the edge, never giving her the 'push' necessary to send her off into sweet chaos and she loved him for it. When it came, her climax was so intense that she thought she was having a heart attack and Sheldon gentled her back down into his arms and wrapped them both in blankets.

And then he started to talk, not lecture, about their future, his deepest fears and regrets, but mostly about how he was afraid that their chosen destination would prove 'inhospitable' to a future safe from the Choker.

"Penny, I don't want our children scrounging for food amongst the ruins of our civilization. We need to reestablish ourselves in an area that will allow us to grow a variety of food crops as well as provide a climate that doesn't prove a veritable Petrie dish for the plague to mutate."

Translation: Escanaba is too cold, the growing season is too short, and we need to rethink our destination while keeping the Choker mutations in mind.

Penny really stopped listening to most of what he said after he said 'our children'.

Next: Sheldon learns to drive


	27. A Bump in the Road

Chapter 26 Plague

* * *

Sheldon sat looking at his laptop map program but not really seeing it. He should have downloaded agronomy and agriculture programs before the World Wide Web disappeared. Maybe…

"Penny, you come from a small town outside a much larger one. Did your town have a library?"

"Um…yeah but it was serviced by a bookmobile. Why?" It was not a question she'd ever expected him to ask.

"We've probably driven by 90% of the information we'll need to begin rebuilding our society, growing food and servicing power and mechanical systems we might find when we select our new starting point. I – I am such an idiot thinking that this," he pointed to the closed laptop on the seat between them, "would be all we'd need."

Sensing a colossal Cooper-Funk just over the horizon, she slowed and then stopped the army fuel truck, left it in gear and turned it off and got out, motioning impatiently for Sheldon to follow her.

She keyed the CB radio that each of them now carried (thanks to Bomber's pilfering of a CB display at the truckstop) and announced "Meeting in the bus. We have a problem and an opportunity."

She realized that she and Sheldon were halves of the same whole. He did the thinking and she explained what he meant in terms that everyone could understand – once she understood herself.

But this – startling realization – made her appreciate her future husband and father to their children even more. None of them were really thinking past the next day, the next meal, the next 'wide spot in the road' town where they might find additional food, weapons and fuel.

But he was.

* * *

They secretly called the two scientists from CalTech the 'brain trust' because they often came in from their outdoor early morning coffee sessions with new ideas or worries.

With 8 of them piled into the coach it seemed crowded but intimate. Penny stood at the front of the salon and 'introduced' the subject.

"We've been really stupid. We've been too concerned about day to day survival that we've lost sight of the purpose of all this…to reestablish our lives and some sort of society when we reach safety."

She had their attention because each of them knew that while she was speaking, they were _his words_, rephrased into English, they were hearing.

"From now on, we stop at every town that's large enough to have," and she hesitated, worried that they'd laugh at her, at him really, but continued on, "a library."

Winkle got it first. Or thought she did. Of course, so much of civilization's literature and history would end up in rotting piles of collapsed buildings given enough time.

Penny watched their faces as first Winkle and then, surprisingly, Tasha Myers, seemed to be lost in thought, not the glazed-over look she herself got when the boys had gone all science-y on her…

Penny's dad, the practical farmer, spoke up, almost embarrassed to do so.

"There's a lot of stuff we know we don't know about and we can find a lot of what we'll need to rebuild and _maintain_ what we need, but what about all the stuff we don't know we don't know? We'll need to add a big trailer to our convoy to store books and tapes and CDs for the future."

"Madison. We should head up to Madison, Wisconsin. There's a creditable university there and it'll have a good library but we need to start thinking beyond food and shelter and fuel," said Sheldon.

"We need books on dentistry, medicine, basic electricity and water and sewage and – there's so much we'll need and," here he paused and looked down at his feet, "we'll need more people to add to our group if for no other reason than adding their day to day skills – like driving."

They laughed at the look of sad embarrassment on his face. He couldn't drive.

* * *

"CLUTCH, Sheldon…use the damned clutch before you shift. I swear to God that you got a 'I can't drive' gene. Look, sweetheart, it's simple, add gas, let the clutch out s-l-o-w-l-y until you feel the 'chatter' on the pedal and then let the clutch out fully and get ready to shift again when the RPMs are in the right zone."

Sheldon was becoming frustrated and angry (with himself) at his inability to master such a simple task and Penny's loud prodding and exclamations were making him nervous and unable to coordinate his feet, hand on the shifting lever, eyes on the tachometer and the road.

"Forget it. This is beyond me. I can handle one of the vehicles with an automatic transmission but this…this is beyond me." He turned off the engine (which had stalled anyway) opened the fuel truck door and slid down onto the road and promptly fell on his ass.

The convoy was queued up on the road and Winkle was driving the bus and was rather enjoying herself. She smiled when the tarp-covered truck lurched forward and stopped and seemed to repeat itself over and over until she saw Sheldon hop out of the cab and end up on his ass in the snow.

It was the funniest thing she'd seen since the Choker.

"Uh oh, that doesn't look good." Bomber had limped up behind her and watched Sheldon's fall. His feet were swollen and he was trying to cut back on his insulin, using the pills and morning tablespoon of cinnamon as substitutes but it wasn't as effective and he was showing classic signs of diabetes.

"Poor Penny. Cooper isn't pleasant when frustrated and this must be driving him right up the wall. They'll end up arguing about it and then 'look out', he'll be impossible to be around."

They watched as Penny walked around the back of the truck and threw Leslie the finger and then went to help her boyfriend get back up on his feet and back 'on the horse'.

"Uh oh," said Winkle. Sheldon had batted Penny's hand away as she offered to help him get back on his feet. He got himself up, dusted snow off his butt and then stomped back towards the coach, a dark look on his face.

Sheldon pounded on the coach door and Winkle pulled the lever to open it and he stomped snow off his boots and climbed up into it.

"You go sit with Penny and let's get this show on the road. We're wasting valuable time on a lost cause. I'll drive the coach. Penny probably needs someone to rant at and Leslie, you just got volunteered."

* * *

Sheldon cautiously drove the coach on the snowy highway and kept 4 'coach lengths' distance between the army fuel truck and the big bus. Bomber was tired and crawled back into bed and Tasha sat up front beside Sheldon and kept him company.

His hands were aching and cramping because he had a nervous death grip on the steering wheel and his answers to Tasha's polite questions were short and terse. He really didn't want any distractions but he didn't want to be rude either.

"Dr. Cooper, do you have any idea of our ultimate destination yet? I hope it's safe for Penny. She's been so good on this trip. She normally hates being cooped up and when Mark and I would go on vacation, she fussed at being in the car so long."

"Mark?" Sheldon's curiosity was piqued. The man in the picture at the church hadn't seemed like the religious zealot type and he wanted to know more about her family and what they did.

He was quite adept at multitasking and her voice was pleasant and he listened intently, relaxing a bit from his rigid pose and grip on the wheel. He was getting in the 'zone' and almost comfortable with driving the luxurious RV.

He went on 'full alert' when he saw the brake lights on the army truck begin to flash as Penny slowed the big truck to a halt.

"Sheldon? The highway's blocked and I don't want to go off-road to change lanes." Her voice over the CB radio sounded stressed and he felt guilty knowing that somehow he was to blame for it.

"Tasha, please remain in the vehicle with Blossom and Bomber. He's not feeling well and I don't want him out in this weather, okay? Perhaps you could heat up some soup for Penny and Winkle? And for yourself and Blossom, of course."

An 18-wheeler had jackknifed on the road and from the looks of the 10 or so cars haphazardly abandoned, passage around the wreck by driving onto the verge or median must have been impossible.

Wyatt walked back after checking out the situation.

"The driver left the engine running so the tanks are dry. The battery's still good but…I think if we can get it started, we can get it out of there. The winch on the fuel truck's too small to be much use. Let's pour a few gallons of diesel into the tanks and see if we can gentle it out of there."

It took 3 hours and it was nearly dark by the time they'd moved the big 18-wheeler a hundred yards down the interstate. It was simple to use the army fuel truck to push the abandoned cars out of the way after they'd searched them and removed anything of value to the group.

He watched as Penny went through one car in particular, spending a great deal of time in it. She was sitting in the backseat fiddling around with something and someone called his name and he lost track of her. She'd been avoiding him since he quit trying to drive the fuel truck.

There were children's books in one car and Sheldon gave them to Blossom when they all got together in the coach.

"Can you say 'thank you, Sheldon' for me, Penny Blossom? I'd really like to hear your voice. I'll bet it's soft and sweet…not like Leslie's or Penny's."

"Th – th…" She hugged him around the waist and then scooped up her new books and sat at the galley table. It was progress and Sheldon was feeling quite pleased with himself until Penny arrived.

"Moon Pie – we need to talk."

"After we eat and clean up, okay? Unless it's that important. If you want, we can go sit in your folks RV while they eat here."

"No. It can wait. It's not like I have a choice in anything, right?" She turned from him but he grabbed her by the wrist and almost dragged her back to their bedroom. If he could have, he'd have slammed the folding fabric door hard.

Winkle looked over at Tasha and said, "Let's go ahead and eat. I don't those two will have much of an appetite. Poor Sheldon. He's such a dumbass where women are concerned."

"Oh, I think he's sweet. He's good with Penny – my Penny, I mean," said Tasha with a slight smile.

"He's also taken. Don't get any ideas, Tasha. This is just a bump in the road for them. She's pissed that they argued about his driving and walked away in the middle of it. He does that. He hates confrontation of any kind and if there are raised voices – he bolts."

"He doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who'd be with a girl like Penny. I mean – "

"Well, he is and it's real for both of them. They were close before this shit storm, really good friends but he was so wrapped up in his research and she was with someone else. They fit together perfectly despite being pieces from different puzzles."

Thirty seconds later, Sheldon threw the divider back and stormed up the aisle to the front of the coach, grabbing his parka and shotgun as he went. He kicked open the coach door, got out and then slammed it shut.

"Okay, so maybe the pieces still need a little sanding off the rough places but – "

Penny came storming up the aisle, her eyes red and puffy, and she grabbed her cold weather gear, her MP-5 and Sheldon's gloves and CB radio.

"The idiot forgot his gloves and radio, Les. I'll be right back. Keep an eye on things, will ya?" She levered the door open and then hopped out, closing the door like a 'normal' person would.

The people still alive in China could have heard her once she got outside.

"Goddamn you, Sheldon Cooper! You can run but you can't hide. You stupid idiot! Where are you? What about your precious Rule #1, huh?"

Sheldon made a beeline for 18-wheeler cab. He checked the area around him but with the flurries he really couldn't see more than a few feet in any direction. He opened the door and slipped into the seat and took out a flashlight and shined it around and then sat back to sulk.

She'd yelled at him. Called him stupid, dense and a whole plethora of things that were hardly new to him. He'd heard them from his schoolmates, his brother and his father even when he was sober.

He didn't need to hear it from her.

Sheldon rolled the window partway down. It smelled in the cab. The previous owner had smoked cigars and apparently little concern for cleanliness judging by the fast food wrappers that littered the floor of the passenger side.

He heard the whine of the engines before he saw the glow from the headlamps.

Snowmobiles!

Penny radioed the alert to the others, hoping they hadn't turned off their radios to conserve the batteries. She froze, unable to decide whether to find her boyfriend or run back to the coach and get ready for guests.

"Oh, Sheldon…" She spun around and ran back to the coach. They had little time to prepare for an attack.


	28. Striking Back

Chapter 27Plague

* * *

_He heard the whine of the engines before he saw the glow from the headlamps._

_Snowmobiles!_

Flashing through the hundreds of possible permutations and finally casting out all those that didn't fit, Sheldon came to a too-little-too-late conclusion.

The jack-knifed truck had been carefully staged at a point where bypassing it was impossible. It was a trap and he and his friends were now caught in it.

And the trappers were checking their traps.

* * *

Bomber took one SAW and stood out of sight behind the fuel tanker and Winkle took the other and ran down the highway and looped in behind them. She was gasping for breath and having a really hard time in the swale between the interstate lanes. There were drifts almost waist deep in places. By the time she reached her position she was on the verge of a physical collapse.

Tasha grabbed Penny Blossom and dressed her as quickly as she could and then used the coach to mask her flight up the slight grade and into the tree line. She wrapped her daughter in a blanket and then took aim at the third snowmobile that was slower then the rest and appeared to be hauling a sled of some sort.

Wyatt and Penny stood casually leaning against the big RV, shotguns held loosely in their hands. The first snowmobile stopped and a large man in camouflaged coveralls got off and pulled off his helmet.

"I see you cleared the jackknifed truck out of the way. None of us could keep it running long enough. We come down here 'bout evening every night to see if anyone's hung up here and offer them bed 'n breakfast and a place in Tilton. Lots of empty houses and the land's pretty good for farmin'. That's what we do…we're farmers."

Wyatt introduced himself and said he was a farmer, too, and asked a few innocent questions that the dirty man couldn't seem to answer, even thought they dealt with things like planting times and what grew well.

Penny watched the other snowmobile rider count the heads of the convoy and then say something into a handheld CB radio like they used. She didn't like the phrase 'fresh meat'.

Wyatt shot the man in front of him when he heard Penny mutter 'Bazinga', the code word for 'enemy', into her CB. The other snowmobiler was unslinging his rifle when Bomber cut him down with a burst from the SAW.

Sheldon heard the BOOM of a shotgun and the BRRRP of a SAW. He was already headed in the direction of the third snowmobile that was idling just off the roadway and between the 18-wheeler and the army fuel truck, guided by its headlamp.

* * *

Winkle couldn't maintain a sight picture. Between her gasping for air and fatigue, she couldn't steady her aim and she wanted a prisoner and the snowmobile.

The driver gunned the snowmobile up onto the road, made a sharp reversal and then headed back down into the swale in the direction he'd come from. Winkle stood up and fired a burst over the driver's head and he swerved sharply away from the tracers, too sharply. The snowmobile turned over in the deep snow, sending the driver sailing into the drift.

Sheldon struggled through the deep snow in the swale and when the driver sat up, Sheldon jammed the muzzle of his shotgun under his face shield and forced him back down on his back.

Winkle foundered her way up to where Sheldon stood over the enemy and quickly searched him, taking his rifle from around his shoulders and a wicked knife from a sheath on his belt.

"Go see what is in the wooden box on the sled he was towing, Leslie. I'll just ask our friend here a few questions. Oh, leave the knife, please and take your time and don't kill yourself in this snow. You're breathing like a 3-pack-a-day smoker."

Any witty comeback was lost in her sudden hacking cough.

"See? I told you so. Nya Nya. Now be a lamb and see what's in the box, Leslie."

* * *

A scream. A scream from someone in mortal agony and then there was the loud sound of silence.

Penny ran towards the capsized third snowmobile scream "Sheldon!" every third or fourth step. Winkle tackled her and they rolled around in the deep snow until Winkle managed to get her attention and yell "He's okay, Penny, he's okay."

Penny tried to sidestep Leslie but the smaller woman just grabbed her by her parka and pushed her back down.

"Don't go there, Blondie. He's doing what has to be done." Winkle could hear Sheldon's 'lecture voice' but couldn't make out the words.

She held up some chains in her hands and shoved them into Penny's arms. "They were going to chain us up and do God knows what. They're not people anymore, they're…they're goddamned animals."

Sheldon was struggling up onto the roadway and Penny shoved the chains back at Leslie and took off running towards him and slid into him, knocking them both down into the snow bank.

"I'm sorry I yelled, honey, but sometimes you make me so damned mad I could wring your scrawny neck but now all I want to do is hold on to you and never let go."

Sheldon's voice was very subdued and Penny had to concentrate to hear it. The others were coming to see if anyone was hurt and she wanted to apologize again and make sure things were –

"Let me up, Penelope. We have things to do. This can wait until later, and no, you don't have a choice. None of us do."

* * *

There was no debate about whether or not it should be done. The only debate was the 'how' and it was heated and loud and when the decisions were finally made, there were angry glares exchanged.

* * *

The 'rescue' was accomplished without casualties to the team and went so smoothly that everyone kept waiting, anticipating the Universe's 'Bazinga' that always seemed to follow such actions.

Wyatt, Bomber and Sheldon drove the three snowmobiles back to the small fenced collection of cement block buildings that had once been a self-storage facility. Penny, Winkle and Tasha Myers each rode behind one of the men, seated backward and 'wearing' shackles.

It was almost dawn and the snow had stopped but visibility was still poor enough that the guard at the gate simply threw it open and then walked out to inspect the new 'workers' his friends had 'rescued'.

He died quietly with a look of shock and surprise on his face, the large hunting knife his companion had carried on their 'raid' imbedded in his throat. Penny's father had a good idea of what they'd find and he was in no mood to take prisoners.

Bomber took the lead with Leslie sitting backwards behind him. That was how the raiders handled their prisoners and that was what they expected to see. They wouldn't expect to see a woman wielding a SAW, that fact was certain.

Another certainty was that they all died, caught in a cross fire between Penny and Winkle when they all piled out of the trailer that used to be the company's office. Tasha covered Sheldon and Penny's dad while the two checked out the office trailer they were using as their headquarters. There were two of the raiders unaccounted for and there were at least 10 of the long cinder block storage units they could be hiding in.

More important was finding and freeing the 'workers' but both Sheldon and Wyatt had insisted on eliminating all the raiders without exception so while the others checked out the stage units, Sheldon and Wyatt went hunting.

The back gate was open and they could see the taillights of a truck disappearing in the distance towards the small rural community of Tilton about a mile away.

"We'll see what the others have found and then we'll take on after them. Maybe they've holed up in town. If your boy was telling the truth, they're the last of them. We should check out the town anyhow and see if there's a pharmacy or a doctor's office and maybe we'll find some insulin for Bomber."

"No, Wyatt. They'll just hide somewhere in town and then come back and start robbing and killing travelers again. Let's go back and get the snowmobiles and track them down. Never leave an enemy in your rear."

'_Alive_' was not said but was clearly understood by both of them. The two told Bomber of their intentions and took two snowmobiles and headed into the small cluster of buildings.

* * *

Penny and Tasha walked down the aisles checking out the open storage units that the raiders had already opened. Furniture and storage boxes littered the cement lanes between the units.

Winkle used the thermal imaging thing that Sheldon had 'borrowed' from the National Guard back in Pasadena ('I'll return it if they ask me to') but so far they hadn't had any luck. The first 4 rows were looted and cold as death.

She turned a corner and it was the stink that stopped her and then she scanned the last bay of units and found many heat sources.

"Penny? Tasha? Got something here. Lots of hot spots. I think we should wait for the guys to come back with the heavy firepower."

"No, Leslie, I think this is what we're looking for. Smell that? Bet there are people locked up there and that stink – no toilets. You have a SAW and I have a shotgun and Tasha's pretty damned good with those Berettas…"

They used the heavy duty bolt cutters to clip the locks on the first unit with 'hot spots' and Penny pulled up the metal door ramp and stepped back in shock.

It wasn't just the smell that shocked her. Winkle shined her Mag-Light into the area and then almost dropped the flash. There were more than a dozen people packed into a very small 8X10 storage locker. They were all women and all were naked and showing signs of abuse.

"Tasha, run back to the office, sweetie, and bring whatever clothes and blankets you can find. Penny, I saw some stuff they can wear in the last aisle. I'll go get it. Just – just don't let anyone leave. Don't let them panic."

A familiar voice from the back of the storage unit called out, "Penny? Penny? Is it really you?"

* * *

**_A/N: Bringing things to a head. This is not the end of the story, more like the end of the beginning. I will press on so long as people read._**

**_Reparata_**


	29. The Killing Fields

Chapter 28 Plague

_**A/N: I find myself looking at the flashing cursor and wondering what words it is really longing to make appear on this white screen? With the way my world's going, it would slowly reveal – old lady with cats.**_

* * *

Last time around:

_A familiar voice from the back of the storage unit called out, "Penny? Penny? Is it really you?"_

Chapter 28 Plague

An observer would think that they'd done it a hundred times or more. Wyatt and Sheldon leapfrogged from cover to cover and finally flushed out the last of the two raiders and ended him.

Wyatt was breathing heavily and Sheldon was getting over a case of the shakes but they had both agreed to use the opportunity to go through the small cluster of commercial buildings before heading back.

They went through the small grocery store/pharmacy with a fine toothed comb. Each pushed a cart down the aisles, grabbing stuff off the shelves and when a cart was full, they pushed it to the front and got another.

There was still power to the town and Sheldon wondered about the source and how long it would continue; either a maintenance failure at the source or downed lines would disrupt it eventually.

They filled 8 shopping carts and then Wyatt went to check out the pharmacy section. Sheldon had gone to the loading dock and checked for stuff that might not have been put on the shelves yet but it was empty except for the body of the store manager who'd been shot and left there to rot.

Wyatt met Sheldon back at the store front and held up several small white boxes and a bag of disposable syringes and a plastic bag full of various over-the-counter and prescription meds.

"I put each of the bins of pills in a separate bag along with the ID tag. I didn't want to leave anything behind that we might need in the future."

They'd found Bomber another month or two of life and that lightened the mood considerably.

The pair of travelers rode their snowmobiles back towards the storage area when Wyatt spotted something in the alleyway between a building and a gasoline filling station. They'd need fuel and maybe there was still some in the underground tanks.

"Sheldon, look! A Greyhound bus!" They turned off to check it out. The luggage hatches were open and there were suitcases, items of clothing and personal items littering the alley.

"I'll bet those bastards forced the bus off the interstate and then probably killed the passengers and took their stuff. Bastards!"

"There was a large Greyhound Bus Lines decal on the window of the filling station. More likely they stopped for fuel and to discharge or pick up passengers and were overpowered. Let's check out the bus."

The bus was empty but Wyatt worked his magic with machinery and got it to start and checked the gauges – almost ½ full of fuel so they must have made a regularly scheduled stop.

"Wyatt, I'm certain that regular bus service would have been suspended due to the Choker. These hoodlums wouldn't have bothered with keeping the bus battery charged. Maybe…maybe these people were like us – refugees looking for a new place to start over?"

Penny's father had thought that Leonard was smart but this guy made Leonard seem…ordinary. Sheldon had obviously made connections through unrelated facts and such and come up with a logically obvious answer.

"Okay, Sheldon, that sounds logical. But where were they heading and why?"

"I don't have a clue. Maybe there are 'workers' still alive who can give us answers but there is insufficient data to form more than a questionable supposition. The bus plates are from Pennsylvania but that doesn't mean the passengers were from there. We don't know which direction they were traveling from the current position of the bus…just too little data."

"I think we should add the bus to our convoy, especially if we intend to increase our group numbers. The more people, the more chance we'll have to find valuable skills and talents we'll need in the future," said Wyatt.

"I agree. It'll mean locating additional diesel stores and figuring out sleeping arrangements. I've ridden on buses my entire life and they are not conducive to a comfortable REM cycle. Now a train…"

* * *

"Bernadette? Bernie?" Penny pushed past a few women and hugged her friend as if her life depended on it. Bernadette was sobbing into her parka and shivering in the cold. Penny took off her heavy parka and wrapped it around her short friend and hugged her.

Penny was surrounded by naked freezing women who all seemed to shout questions at her and demand answers – answers she didn't have. She had a question of her own, though.

"Bernadette, where's Howard? Is he – "

"I don't _know! _ We haven't seen any of the men from the bus since we were taken. Oh, Penny, it was horrible. They shot the driver and a couple of the passengers, the older ones, and then they – "

Anything else was lost to her sobs and Penny had no idea what to do or say. This was like nothing she'd ever experienced and she was totally out of her depth.

Tasha returned with blankets from the office but there weren't enough to go around. Winkle came back with boxes of clothes and threw them on the ground and went back for more.

Penny yelled to get their attention. "Ladies, I'm Penny and my friends and I are from Pasadena. We're not going to hurt you but you have to be patient while we find you all something to wear. Share the blankets – "

"What about my husband?" one woman shouted and others started hollering and Penny pulled Bernadette behind her and started backing up, afraid for the first time since opening the steel sliding door. These people were desperate and some were in need of immediate help but she was overwhelmed and scared to death.

Winkle came back with two more boxes and then shouted out that they better get dressed and then out of the weather and started shoving the more demanding women towards the pile of clothing.

They started shoving back, clearly panicking and Tasha fired two shots into the air and things immediately quieted down.

"Listen! We never expected to find so many of you and we're doing the best we can. Get your asses over to that pile of clothes and cover yourselves. I'll start a fire and you can all get warm. We're not done opening units yet. There might be other survivors, so shut up, line up and do what you're fucking told!"

Her voice, her authority and her orders brought order out of chaos. The way she'd waved her pistol around cowed a few of the loudest ones and they finally began picking through the piles of other people's clothes to find something warm.

Winkle said, "Tasha, you're in charge of these people. Penny and I will open the other units. Bernadette, stay with Tasha. Maybe you can gather stuff for a fire? Build it in the storage unit near the front and it'll warm the whole unit."

Leslie and Penny went from unit to unit, scanning for heat signatures. Penny was almost ready to give up hope when – "Got bodies in this one, Penny. Cover me while I clip the lock and open the door. If they're like those bitches were, we might have a problem with them."

Leslie used the bolt cutters and threw up the folding door. They wouldn't have any problems. The men in the unit had been worked almost to death and probably had never had enough to eat. They were exhausted and just lay on the cement or leaned against the cinder block walls, too cold to move.

"Howard? Howard Wolowitz? Howie, are you in there?" Penny yelled out and walked in to the unit, trying not to gag at the stench or at the condition of the men. One or two were clearly dead or so near death it wouldn't matter unless they got medical care.

"Who – who wants to know?" His voice came from the back of the unit where he leaned against the cinder block wall. He was so cold he thought he was hallucinating. It couldn't be Penny. She was in Pasadena with Sheldon, not wandering around northern Iowa rescuing people from slavery.

* * *

Bomber searched through the office and found nothing of any use. He gathered up the weapons that were stacked against one wall and then found a crude drawing of a 'fort' of some kind and notes about construction.

There were also lists of things they'd planned to bring in and a listing of 3 national guard armories and the towns they were located in.

When Tasha burst in and explained that she needed blankets for the survivors, he pointed toward another room in the office trailer that they'd been using for 'recreation'. There were blankets in there.

"Bomber, we could really use your help. I can't keep and eye on these people and start a fire to keep them warm. Can you help me?"

* * *

Bomber rolled a steel trash barrel over in front of the storage unit and started throwing construction debris and anything that would burn into it. He took a bottle of vodka that he'd found in the office and dumped it into the barrel and then threw in a match from a box he'd found in the office.

"Okay, this is the best we can do for now. I'm Hideki, but you can just call me Bomber. I'm retired Air Force and joined up with these people in Barstow. They're good people and don't mean you any harm. We came here to kill the bastards that tried to attack us and didn't expect to find any of you alive. This is the best we can do and be damned glad we're doing it."

"What about my husband and the other men on the bus? We were headed to Omaha and an Air Force base there. We heard them on the radio and they said they would add us to their group and – "

"Offut Air Force Base in Omaha? Lady, those guys make these guys look like social workers. It was a trap. They're predators of the worst kind and you people were easy prey. We almost fell into their trap ourselves – almost."

Bomber wondered how many other groups like this one had been lured to their deaths or worse by those animals in Omaha? If he could find a plane and munitions, he'd gladly bomb it into rubble.

The people from the bus (who forever would be known as 'the bus people) were reunited with their loved ones who had survived. One woman, Jennifer, was alone. Her boyfriend had died sometime in the last few hours and it was his body that Penny and Leslie had found. Penny and Bernadette quickly 'adopted' her knowing that she'd need a lot of comfort and attention in the days to come.

Winkle didn't like her for some reason and her only comment was 'she's not sleeping in the RV and that's final'.

* * *

Wyatt drove the Greyhound bus into the compound and began opening the storage lockers in the side of the bus. He and Sheldon had thrown all the stuff from the alley into it and he'd driven back to the storage business hoping they'd found survivors.

"Daddy, where's Sheldon?" Penny didn't see a snowmobile and Sheldon hadn't gotten off the bus with her father.

"He's still in town checking things out. We found more insulin and syringes for Bomber and a whole bunch of prescription drugs. We'll need to take the semi into town and load up what we scavenged. I saw a map in the postoffice and the exit for Tipton is just a mile or so down the road. We'll bring everything here while we get things sorted out, I guess."

"You left him in town _alone?_ Oh, God, he's alone and there's no one to watch his back," she said to her father, pissed off that he and Sheldon ignored the rules when it was convenient for them.

'_Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'._

She handed Bernadette off to Tasha telling her that she was going into town because her father had left Sheldon alone in clear violation of Rule #1.

"Go. I've got this in hand. We'll start going through the bus luggage and then," she almost gagged, "we have _got_ to do something about getting these people _clean!"_

* * *

Tipton

Sheldon had gone through 8 houses, searching for anything they could use and piling in front of the house for later pick up. He had yet to come across any bodies and that had him both curious and full of dread.

There hadn't been any bodies anywhere and he had a feeling that he was going to stumble over a mass grave or something. It was obvious that not many of the residents of Tipton had evacuated because there were cars and trucks in driveways of all the houses he'd checked.

He walked out of the ninth house with his arms full of clothing and a few jars of home-canned preserves and fruits when he heard the whining of a snowmobile in the distance.

He crouched down behind a line of trashcans that were on the side of the road waiting for a pick up that would never come. His plan was simple, wait until the snowmobile was parallel with his hiding place and then kill the rider. Another snowmobile might come in handy hauling stuff from the abandoned town back to their vehicles.

Penny had turned down the alley between the post office and another building and ended up making a sweeping turn around the outskirts of the small town. Instead of approaching from the direction of the storage units, she was coming from the north.

It didn't dawn on her that in the feeble light of dawn, she wasn't recognizable. She was wearing a helmet for safety and had pulled on a coat from the stuff they'd piled up for the survivors. She'd given Bernadette her field jacket.

Sheldon watched as the rider slowed down after seeing the stack of stuff on the front porch. The rider was probably going to go through it looking for anything of value.

Perfect. He couldn't miss at this distance.


	30. Bloody Snow

It's short but opens up the next few chapters. Trying to get my groove back but the muse is fickle and comes and goes, whispering naughty tidbits in my ear.

* * *

Chapter 29 The Plague

_Perfect. He couldn't miss at this distance._

The snowmobile slowed down and his finger tightened on the trigger. He wanted a clear head shot at the driver and didn't want to risk any collateral damage to the snowmobile so he waited another second and then another.

It stopped right in front of him. The driver shut off the engine and stood up, still on the vehicle, and seemed to be looking for something or someone specific.

_Perfect. _

He could hear his Papaw's words in his 5-year old ear as clearly as he did that day 26 years earlier.

_'Shelly, hold your sight picture and take a deep breath and hold it, son. See how the picture seems to rise and fall? That's your heartbeat, Shelly, and you'll miss at a distance if you don't fire between them. Slowly let out your breath and squeeze the trigger. Let the rifle fire itself.'_

He remembered how surprised he was when the rifle slammed back into his shoulder but not as surprised as the jackrabbit that he'd shot with his Papaw's .22 rifle.

His elation had been short-lived because the rabbit was flopping around and even from 25 yards away, he could hear the squeals of pain.

'_Shelly, you've learned something today, haven't you, son? You learned that you could shoot and hit something, right? But you learned a lesson about consequences, too. Now, go put that poor critter out of its misery. Next time, aim for the head, son. A hunter takes a life but should do it in a merciful manner. And don't kill for sport just to prove you can hit something you aim at. That's what tin cans are for.'_

It took him a while to figure it out but he did and that was the last time he went hunting. From that point on, he hunted tin cans on a fence rail. They didn't squeal as they died.

Sheldon stood up, stepped around the trash barrels, and shouted for the figure on the snowmobile to raise his hands and get off and then kneel in the snow. His sight picture never wavered as he advanced on his enemy.

The group needed intelligence and they couldn't get it from a dead raider.

* * *

As much as she wanted to find her boyfriend and chew his ear off for ignoring his own proven rule for safety (_'Rule #1 – do not go anywhere alone'_), she also knew that running off in search of him alone was just as bad.

Penny slowed the Polaris and then stopped and turned off the loud engine. She stood up, still straddling the leather seat, and looked down the street that wandered through the cluster of homes in hopes of seeing him in the early light of dawn.

**"You - on the snowmobile! Get your hands where I can see them and then kneel down in the snow. Reach for that weapon and you're a dead man!"**

She whirled around at the sound of Sheldon's voice and lost her balance somehow and ended up on her back in the snow _behind_ the snowmobile. Penny struggled to get up but had had the wind knocked out of her. Her arms and legs flailed in the snow trying to gain a purchase.

'_Well, I found him. When did he get so macho? That voice…'_

* * *

Sheldon was startled but the rider's scream of surprise and sudden fall. For just a second he wondered if he'd somehow fired his weapon in between his heartbeats. He advanced slowly and could see the rider struggling to rise.

He flashed on the jackrabbit squealing in pain and fright so many years ago and he remembered his Papaw's words about putting the poor critter out of its misery.

Sheldon raised his sights from the rider's chest to its visor-covered face and added pressure to the finger that was curled around the grooved trigger.

'_A headshot and its suffering will be ended. Fire between the heartbeats…'_

Penny looked up into the face of the man who was her future and smiled through the visor of her helmet. She reached out a hand for him to help her up but was shocked when his pistol rose and centered itself on her visored face.

"Sh – Sheldon, help! I can't - " she wheezed out, still trying to draw a full breath into her lungs.

The snow turned bright red around the rider's head and spread until it touched his boots and continued on until the entire snow covered street was blood red. The blood began to flow over his boots and up his legs and he threw down the pistol and dropped to his knees and pulled the lifeless body into his arms and broke down as a lifetime of suppressed emotions burst forth.

* * *

Penny fumbled with the chinstrap of the helmet she wore. She had to see him, to see what was wrong and she couldn't do that like this.

"Sheldon, are you hurt? Sheldon, what's wrong? Whatever's wrong we can fix it, baby." She wrapped her other arm around his neck and just held on. She didn't know what was wrong but it must be bad. He just hugged her and rocked her like a little baby and his body was periodically wracked by bouts of quiet sobbing.

It was getting light enough that she could see where he'd walked into a house and then back out. She could see his tracks and where he'd knelt in the snow behind some trashcans.

'_Oh. He heard my snowmobile and came out, hid behind the cans and when I stopped…he thought I was one of them…that explained his challenge but not…not __this__.'_

Her CB radio crackled with an inquiry about her location. _"Penny, this is Leslie, where are you? Have you found Sheldon yet? Are you there?"_

She fumbled around and finally pulled the small CB radio from her borrowed coat and answered.

"Les, yeah, I found him. Look give us an hour or so and we'll be back, okay?"

"_What's wrong? Do you need help?"_

"Remember the parking lot in Barstow? It's like that but a lot worse. I don't know why right now. Let me talk with him. We'll be in the last house just before you leave town. Everything's okey-dokey."

The last phrase was a 'safe phrase' Bomber told them to use to tell them that she was okay and not under duress. If she'd said "I gotta go," then they would come running because there was a problem.

She put the CB radio back in her pea coat pocket and peeled Sheldon's arms from around her and then took his face in her palms and kissed him gently, not deepening it but just touching his lips to hers, hoping that somehow he'd snap out of his fugue.

"Sheldon, it's cold, baby. Let's go back into that house there and out of this cold. Maybe we can build a fire if they have a fireplace or maybe the heat's still working. C'mon, Moon Pie, stand up for me. I can't drag your carcass that far."

He stood up, still clutching at her, staring at her as if surprised to see her. He reached out and cupped her face with one cold hand and she leaned into it and let her eyes close.

"Penny, I thought I'd killed you. There was so much blood and it was – "

"Shh, you didn't or I wouldn't be talking to you, would I? Now, hush, and let's get into that house over there and out of this wind, okay?"

* * *

Leslie watched as Bernadette and Howard hung on to each other, overjoyed that neither had been killed and even more thrilled at being rescued and reunited with their friends from Pasadena.

Howard was wearing normal clothes, for him, and Bernadette had found one of her suitcases and pulled on clothes, glad to be warm again but really glad to be out of the freezing storage unit.

"So where are Penny and Sheldon? I'll bet he's freaking out over all this, right, Leslie? So many changes. A total lack of control over anything. He must be totally bat crap crazy by now."

Leslie frowned at Howard but then realized that Penny had been gone far too long alone. She pulled a CB radio from her parka pocket and called out to her friend.

"Penny, this is Leslie, where are you? Have you found Sheldon yet? Are you there?"

"_Les, yeah, I found him. Look give us an hour or so and we'll be back, okay?"_

"What's wrong? Do you need help?" she asked, suddenly afraid of things falling further apart.

Penny's response was quick and Leslie breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the code phrase. They weren't in any trouble.

"_Remember the parking lot in Barstow? It's like that but a lot worse. I don't know why right now. Let me talk with him. We'll be in the last house just before you leave town. Everything's okey-dokey."_

She had her unit on speaker because pulling the hood of the parka up and down was a pain in the ass so Howard and Bernadette had heard the entire conversation.

"Barstow? Why the hell were you doing in _Barstow_, for Christ's sake? Did Sheldon run away when the shooting started?"

"Watch the tone, Howard. Who do you think planned and executed this little rescue operation, huh? As for Barstow, that was a long time ago when we first bugged outta Pasadena."

Leslie got a faraway look on her face and Bernadette glared at Howard to 'be quiet'.

"Sheldon blew up a truck full of rapists and murderers with a rocket launcher but then got to feeling guilty. Something must have happened when he and Penny's dad went to take care of the last of your 'friends'. He doesn't feel guilty at all anymore."


	31. Camel is a horse designed by committee

Against the Fall of Night - by Reparata

Chapter 30

The house was clean and hadn't been disturbed in any way and she knew Sheldon wouldn't have any area uninvestigated so she knew they were alone. She pulled Sheldon into the living room and pushed him down on a couch and then turned and grinned.

Whoever lived here had laid in a ton of wood and had prepped the fireplace for a quick lighting. She felt a moment of sadness for the people who had lived here. Chances were that they were dead and would never return to this comfortable home.

Penny dug out her Bic lighter and set the crumpled newspaper on fire and the waited as there kindling caught fire and then added some very small pieces of wood from an antique milk jug that served to store them. It wasn't long before she had a roaring fire going.

Sheldon just sat back and watched her quick and precise movements. He smiled sadly to himself when he thought back to his thoughts in Pasadena. Yes, Penny had survival skills outside the norm and she'd used them effortlessly when others would be trying to light a log with the required Bic lighter he'd distributed to his team members.

Of all the members of their group, only Penny was equipped by nurture and experience to cope with these times. If all the modern conveniences were suddenly rendered useless, no doubt most of the Choker survivors would succumb because they couldn't do something as simple as lighting a fire.

Penny turned and glanced quickly around the room and then said quietly, "Get out of those clothes and come sit by the fire, honey, while I go find us some blankets."

He started to object but she was gone before he could form a sentence and was back with several folded blankets before his mind processed her simple instructions.

"These are clean, Moon Pie. I found them in a closet of linens in plastic vacuum bags. Help me pull the couch over here and we'll be warm in no time."

Penny quickly made up a bed on the repositioned couch, laid a large log on the fire and then began undressing. "Shel, lose the clothes."

He stared at her dumbly and she sighed and helped him undress. "Okay, lie down on the couch and don't hog the covers."

Naked now, she lay down beside him and pulled the blankets over them and found her favorite position and pulled his arms around her.

"Talk to me. What happened out there that rattled you so badly? I won't judge you, Shel. I just want to know, okay?"

Sheldon pulled her as close to him as possible, and whispered into her hair. "I killed you. I shot you in the head and the blood was everywhere. The street was knee deep in it."

"I'm alive, Sheldon Lee Cooper. Don't slip away, Shel. Hold on to me, baby. I'm alive and I'm wrapped up in your arms and the world can go to Hell and I won't care."

He sighed into her hair and she wiggled up until they were facing each other, a hair's breadth apart.

"This is the first time in ages that we've had any real privacy." She closed the distance and kissed him, a gentle caress of her lips against his.

* * *

Winkle decided then and there that Howard was fast becoming a pain in the ass. When Penny's father dragooned several men into returning to the interstate and bringing up the remaining vehicles, Howard was whining about being cold and hungry.

"Howard, we didn't come prepared to open a soup kitchen. We came to take out the raiders and finding you guys was just serendipity. Adding this many souls to our group is going to be a real challenge so put a frikkin' sock in it and ask how you can help!"

Leslie stormed away from the couple before she rearranged the Howard's facial features. If this group all figured they were 'entitled' to a share in what they'd managed to scrounge, they were sadly mistaken.

'_I can't believe I actually slept with him! How can Bernadette stand that constant whining? He and Leonard together would drive me frikkin' nuts!'_

* * *

"Feeling better, baby?" _She_ certainly did. There was a frantic quality to their initial coupling but the second time had been slow and gentle and so full of love that she had tears in her eyes.

"Yeah. Much. I just – I just got overwhelmed by it all. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Other than moans and whispered entreaties, the couple really hadn't spoken about what happened in the street.

"Well, Moon Pie, you certainly overwhelmed me," she giggled but then turned serious.

"When we get where we're going, promise me you won't let all this drive us apart? Promise me that you'll always tell me when it gets bad and promise me that you'll never walk away from us."

"Why would you ever entertain such a thought, Penelope?"

"Because when you've ended your damned quest to find me someplace safe to live the rest of my life, it's always been your intention to leave, Sheldon. If you think back to Pasadena, you were going to send Leslie and me out alone, remember?" She sighed and then continued.

"Of course you do. You have eidetic memory as you've always reminded anyone who may have doubted something you've quoted," she mumbled in exasperation.

She waited an instant to gauge the meaning of the sudden look of despair in his eyes and then the CB radio crackled and it was her father's voice asking where she was and if Sheldon was with her.

Sheldon reacted as if they'd been caught red handed and naked doing the 'nasty' by her father. He jumped up, almost dumping Penny on the hardwood floor, and started looking for his clothes.

Penny laughed and shook her head. Sometimes he was so human and vulnerable and at other times, so aloof and distant. This time her whack-a-doodle was behaving like a horny teenager who'd been caught with his hands in his girlfriend's pants.

"I hardly find anything humorous in your father's inquiry as to your whereabouts and my incidental presence, Penny."

"Oh, Moon Pie, you're such a guy sometimes." She laughed at the look on his face and then cupped his face in her hands and kissed him sweetly and gently, just as she had more than 2 hours ago.

"As soon as we run across one, baby, you can make an honest woman of me." She chuckled but then stopped when she saw the consternation on his face.

"Penny, you are the most honest woman – "

Her laughter cut him off and he glared at her. He hated being interrupted for any reason other than the appearance of Leonard Nimoy or the Apocalypse.

"I meant get married, Sheldon. It's just a phrase, baby, nothing more."

"Considering that it was always my intent to do so, I think this satisfies your demand for a promissory statement of my intent to be with you always."

They banked the fire, refolded the blankets and walked out into the cold morning, content and as happy as they could be given the circumstances.

* * *

Despite Winkle's words, Howard continued whining, gathering up the survivors from the bus and haranguing them about their situation. The twenty of so survivors were worried about their futures and no on could blame them.

Many of the women had been assaulted and the men had had to stand by, starving and locked in the storage unit, unable to help their loved ones. They were worried now that they'd jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

Sheldon and Penny drove their snowmobiles out of town and into the storage compound. Wyatt was waiting for them, holding a shotgun loosely in his arms and glaring at Sheldon as only a father can.

"It's about damned time. I don't know what you two have been up to but we have a situation brewing here and we need to address it fast."

Sheldon turned beet red and Penny laughed and just wrapped her arms around his arm. "Daddy, we're getting married as soon as we find someone who can so put the shotgun away. You're scaring your future son-in-law."

"Oh, I meant – never mind. You'll see for your selves. The 'bus people' seem to think we owe them something more than their freedom. Leslie, bless her heart, flat out told them that we didn't come here to do more than clean the rats out of the sewer but they're hungry and scared and getting a mite surly."

* * *

Howard was loudly demanding that they 'organize a committee' to discuss things and decide their future actions when Sheldon walked up behind him, grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around and wrapped him in a very uncharacteristic 'bro hug'.

"I thought you were dead, Wolowitz. I'm so glad to discover that even I, _Homo novus,_ can be wrong from time to time. Your engineering skills will be much needed in the future. Where's Bernadette?"

He followed the sound of girly squeals and saw Penny and Bernadette in some sort of female ritual that involved hugging and crying and squealing followed by more hugging.

"Are your in-laws here, Howard? You were going to seek refuge in the Dells with them."

"The Choker…" Nothing more needed to be said.

"I'm sorry for your loss. Why did you leave the Dells, Howard? Were you driven out by others? There are hordes of lawless brigands perpetrating unimaginable horrors on survivors."

"We were on our way to Omaha. There's a group of survivors who have established themselves at an air force base and they've been broadcasting an invitation for other survivors to join them. We were on our way there when we stopped here for fuel. You know the rest."

Wyatt had been standing beside Penny and snorted in derision. "That bunch makes this place look like Club Med. They're slavers and follow a feudal system. They're lords. You're serfs. Lord knows how many have fallen for their line of crap!"

"How were we to know? We talked a long time with them and then held a vote and those who wanted to try for Omaha and a new life boarded buses and drove down here. We broke down and were a few hours behind them."

Sheldon looked at Wyatt and shook his head. In his opinion, those people were already lost and they had enough on their plates without risking everything for people that traded liberty for security.

"Wyatt, I'd like to integrate Howard and Bernadette into our unit. Could you make room for Penny Blossom and Tasha? The rest of these people can either push on to Omaha or accompany us. Since they seem to do things by committee, let them decide among themselves but tell them what's waiting for them in Omaha. They have until tomorrow at dawn to decide."

Howard drew himself up to his full height and asked, "And just where are you and your group of nomads headed, Sheldon? Some secret base established by the Illuminati?"

"North. The Choker mutates in warm weather and we want to be as far north as possible before the spring outbreaks. We're taking our time, scavenging for food, medicine, fuel, tools and weapons as we go. We're also collecting books and maintenance manuals on farming, medicine, dentistry, construction and equipment repair. We have a semi-trailer just waiting to store them until we find our new home."

"That actually makes sense, Sheldon. I need to talk to Bernie and some friends but I'm sure she'll agree. I can't speak for the others."

"We've only just begun collecting the books. Lord knows how much critical information we've just driven by."

"There's a respectable library in the Dells but there's a huge library in Madison," said Howard.

"Howard, what have you heard about Chicago? There is a dairy farmer in Grayling and we were thinking about asking him to join us or trade us some of his cows. If we are to survive as a people, we'll need children and they'll need milk and dairy products."

"We heard something about a dirty bomb and another fire like the one in the early days but nothing concrete. 'Dirty' could mean radioactive materials or chemical or even biological bombs."

The 'bus people' voted and it was unanimous: they'd join with their rescuers and try and establish themselves someplace safe.


	32. Family Matters

Chapter 31

Against the Fall of Night

Making their way north, it was inevitable that they would find more survivors, some in dire straits and others 'sitting pretty', and they added those who wished to join their mobile community integrating the people and their supplies into the communal arsenal and stores areas.

Transportation suddenly became a critical issue. The bus from the Dells broke down several times until it finally became apparent to all that something had to be done or they'd never do anything other than wait along side the road while someone tried to fix whatever was wrong with limited knowledge and equipment.

They were passing a series of exits off the interstate when Sheldon radioed from the army fuel truck that they should pull over at the rest stop for a discussion.

Sheldon ran his idea past Penny, Wyatt and Bomber. Leslie would agree with anything the group agreed on and had busied herself taking inventory of their food supplies. The group stood around a picnic bench that Wyatt stood on and he opened the discussion with a summary.

"We're losing valuable time because the bus keeps breaking down. One of these times we won't be able to fix it. Our plan is to leave the interstate and begin searching for RV dealers and replace the bus with RVs that will be a lot more comfortable for all concerned."

There were a couple of cheers but mostly they'd follow whatever suggestions the team leaders made. There was a brief discussion and then the convoy of refugees began their search.

They found a dealership not long or far after leaving the interstate. Since Sheldon and Wyatt were the 'resident experts' because Sheldon had outfitted the Beast and Wyatt had his own RV, everyone settled in while the additional 8 RVs of various sizes and capacities were prepped for departure. An additional day was needed to add basic protective features such as chain link over the windshield and large side windows but they were finally able to get back on the road. There were the usual disgruntled people who didn't like where they'd been assigned to ride and live but overall, things went smoothly.

Tasha Myers had suggested adding trailers to each of the RVs since they were adding people and supplies at such a rate that storage was becoming critical and no one wanted to leave something behind that they might need in the future. They spent the next morning locating a dealership that handled farm trailers.

Suddenly, the 'bus people' wanted to put even the smallest decisions to a vote and after a few attempts at consensus, voting became a thing of the past and the original team became de facto leaders although they still had group meetings to explain changes and decisions. It reduced wasted time and with a few exceptions, proved beneficial. Sheldon hated public speaking and confrontation and so he allowed anyone else to assume the role of communicator.

Madison proved to be a disastrous decision. The entire urban area was little more than a battleground as groups vied for control of dwindling food supplies. The refugees had actually fought their way past a roadblock at one point before radioing a change of direction to the convoy.

They were going to attempt an end around and head for Milwaukee, bypass it, and push on to the Upper Peninsula, all the while scrounging for food and fuel and any technical manuals they could find.

* * *

Everyone noticed a change in Sheldon as they progressed further up the interior of the state. He seemed to keep to himself more, rarely joined the discussion around the dinner table and insisted on launching the radio antenna every evening. He sat there for hours each night listening to static as he scanned the dial for some evidence of people.

The morning coffee ritual took place as usual at the crack of dawn. Sheldon sat on the tailgate of the army fuel truck, Leslie wrapped up in her parka, leaning slightly against him as if to let him know he wasn't alone.

"Sheldon, the others are worried and so am I. What's got you down? You seem to be slipping back into 'Dr. Dumbass' again and we don't know why. Look, I'm worried about Bomber's insulin supply and I know you are, too. But that's a given and we both know we're doing the best we can but it's not enough to make you – "

"My sister is a Natural Immune, just like me." Leslie didn't say anything, just squeezed his forearm in quiet support. Now they were getting somewhere.

"I should have left you when I got Penny to Omaha and her parents joined our ragtag little convoy of refugees. It was a straight shot to Galveston by interstate and I could have been there in three or four days. I should have gone, Les. She's my sister and she's alone if she's still alive. What if she's being held by a slaver? What if she's some kind of – "

"Hush, Sheldon. You can 'what if' yourself into a depression if you keep this up. Is that why you listen to the radio every night searching for signs of life – hoping for someone from Galveston or nearby that can tell you something about your sister?"

He looked up at the gray sky and blinked back tears and nodded, not looking at her. They were twins and genetically she was a Natural Immune like him and so she must still be alive, or so he hoped.

"Sheldon, I promise you that when we get to where we're safe, I'll go with you to find your sister, or at least try to find her. If she's half as smart as you, she's probably Queen of Texas by now."

He snickered and she shoulder bumped him. "Missy has the IQ of a normal person but she has the charm and charisma to probably pull it off. Let's put that aside. What are we going to do about Bomber?"

"Why haven't you mentioned this to Penny?" He was good at deflection but Winkle was very good at ignoring him. She'd had almost 9 years of practice.

"Why? Because she'll feel guilty and be upset that I've given up my sister for her and her family. I made a conscious decision in Pasadena to get you two to safety and I do not regret it for one moment. I just feel guilty – if that's the proper term – guilty about abandoning my sister. If _**I**_ feel this, and I don't normally have emotions as you all keep saying, then how badly will Penny feel? I can't hurt her like that."

"Sheldon Cooper, underneath all those layers and armor, there's a living, breathing human being after all. Don't let yourself slip back like you were. You were a colossal pain in the ass, Shel."

"I don't want to hurt her – "

"You're hurting her now because she doesn't know what's wrong. She thinks it's her. You need to tell her and you need to tell her now. Just don't mention us going after your sister, the Queen. She might not like it one bit."

"I'll do that shortly. I hadn't looked at it from that perspective. I would have thought my acceptance of her proposal of marriage and then telling her dad that I would make an 'honest' woman out of her would have put to rest her concerns. That was a weak assumption on my part."

"Did I just hear you admit to being wrong, Dr. Cooper?" She was teasing him and from the look on his face, he wasn't certain but fell back on his time-proven response. "Of course you didn't, Dr. Winkler."

* * *

After dinner, while the others were cleaning up and deciding which board game to play from the stash that each vehicle now carried thanks to Leslie's foresight, Sheldon whispered to Penny that she needed to dress warmly because he wanted to take a walk and talk.

"Talk about what, Sheldon?" She was worried that somehow he'd come to the conclusion that they weren't going to be the 'couple' that Penny wanted them so badly to be. It showed in her tone and her heart was racing in fear. _'This is why he's been so depressed. He made a commitment to me and now he's having second thoughts and he's trying to break it to me gently.'_

"I'd rather do it in private, if you don't mind, and I thought a walk around the area would give us privacy and exercise we don't normally get cooped up in the vehicles."

Penny just sighed, now more certain than ever that her happily-ever-after was about to come to an abrupt and unhappy stop.

It was cold but the air held no hint of snow and Sheldon pulled off his glove and then pulled off Penny's and twined his fingers with hers and put the joined hands into the voluminous pocket of his field jacket.

'_Maybe he's afraid I'll go all Junior Rodeo on him and he's protecting himself.' _ She couldn't help the negative feelings that enveloped her.

"Penny, I made a commitment to you in Pasadena to see you safe and reunited with your parents and – "

"And now you're dumping me? Why? I thought we were in love and going to get mar – "

He stopped and felt a deep sense of shame. He hadn't realized how his self-isolation had affected her in such a hurtful way.

"Penelope, I _will_ marry you at the first available opportunity but I have a task to perform, a sort of 'moral obligation', if you will."

She looked up at him, relieved but worried now. What sort of _task_?

"My sister is a Natural Immune as am I. We share the same genetic makeup and I –"

She interrupted him when she saw how his eyes filled with anguish.

"Of course we have to find her, or at least search for her. We'll go together, honey. Missy's my friend and more than that, she's your family, baby, and I know that this will haunt you forever if we don't do it. Is this what's been bothering you since Omaha? I thought – "

"You think too much, Penny, worry too much. You'll get wrinkles and I'll have to find a younger woman to continue my lineage."

She poked him in the stomach and then pulled her hand out from his pocket and hugged him, trying to get close to him and let him know that they were together now and always.

"You even look at a younger model, my love, and I'll rip off your gadget and render you useless." She ground here hips against him and felt him recoil slightly at her threat…he was such a guy sometimes. His first thought was to protect the family jewels.

Another crisis averted for the time being.

* * *

Leslie glared at Sheldon when he climbed back into the bus but then smiled when he reached down and grabbed Penny's hand to help her up, pulling her into a quick hug.

"Shel, Bernadette has an interesting idea that might help Bomber with his insulin. Sit down, have some tea and listen to what she has to say." It wasn't an order, more like a plea so he sat and looked across the dinette table to his friend's blonde waif of a wife. She had lost weight and the loss did wonders for her figure and made her face even more elfin than before.

"Sheldon, when Howard and I left I'd been working for a company called Viridian Dynamics. I found out, quite by accident, that they were conducting highly illegal human trials on a substitute for insulin that would only need to be ingested annually. I shouldn't have been at all surprised. They froze one of their top scientists as an experiment. I saw the reports and they were 78% effective."

"Wonderful news, Bernadette, but that was in Pasadena and – " She interrupted him and continued.

"The main office was in Chicago but the trials were being held in a research facility in Sturgeon Bay. That's like only 4 days drive north of here given the problems we've run into. Sheldon, what if I can find the research data and maybe samples of the drug… I could duplicate it and he'd be free of his daily dependence and - "

Winkle was all smiles and she looked at Sheldon's face and knew that once again he'd sacrifice time for his friends.

"Okay, someone plot a route and let's go inform the others of our change of direction. It took Moses 40 years, this is a piece of cake in comparison."

They gathered around the dinette table several hours later and went over the details of their route. There were a lot of small towns along their route and they could break off several of the RV teams to search for fuel and other supplies – and possible recruits for what was rapidly being called 'The Colony'.

In his own mind Sheldon was computing the probabilities of finding Bomber help versus the probability of finding Missy alive. The odds were heavily in Bomber's favor and once again, Sheldon turned his back on his family until an errant thought made him sit up and laugh.

These people _were_ his family, too. Winkle the Witch, Queen Penelope, Wyatt, Jennifer, Tasha and L'il Penny Blossom and Bomber – they were his family, too.

'_Sorry, Missy, but the needs of the many…'_


	33. Over Taken By Events

A/N: My muse fled briefly to Florida for a bacchanalian orgy for Spring Break but came back to me this morning. I know you've missed.

* * *

Chapter 32 The Plague

They had made really good time and with the exception of one group of foragers that had run into a better-armed party, there were no incidents worth noting in the convoy's official log that Leslie had begun keeping.

A group led by the 'biggest mouth' of the bus people had stumbled onto a trailer truck that had been abandoned and had sent a rider back to get additional transport to haul away their find: can goods destined for a distribution center that served the Green Bayou area supermarkets.

Wyatt had ridden back with the messenger, hanging onto the back of the small motorcycle that Sheldon had insisted that each RV carry in its trailer for just such a situation.

It took him less than an hour to fuel the tractor and jump-start it from the batteries of the RV. The big rig joined the convoy and Mr. Big Mouth basked in the attention the find generated. In the back of his mind he felt entitled to a voice in the 'council meetings' and confronted Howard, whom he knew from the bus.

He was pissed off beyond belief when Howard told him that 'stumbling over a semi-trailer doesn't mean you're anything more than lucky. Your total experiences, other than selling life insurance, consist of riding in a bus and becoming a slave. Those are hardly qualifications for leadership.'

He stomped back to his assigned RV, fuming. _'No tells Will Montgomery he's not a leader. There are enough of us to take over this circus and head south to safety. All I have to do is find the right people to back my play…'_

* * *

They laagered for the night outside Port Washington, on the shores of Lake Michigan. They set up in a wooded park just as the old settlers had done when traversing across the continent 150 years earlier when in 'Indian country'.

Their roster totaled 134 souls, mostly younger people who seemed to be able to fight off the plague easier than those older or who had been blessed by a gene pool that made them Natural Immunes. There were none in the group older than 45 except for Penny's parents who were probably Natural Immunes.

Their evening meal was always a communal affair, weather permitting, and tonight the temperature was a balmy 48F and the wind had died down and everyone was enjoying being outside and talking with others.

Will Montgomery had been busy. It was easy to find those who believed the convoy was going in the wrong direction or who felt disenfranchised by the 'leadership team' and wanted a change – with them in charge, of course.

Leslie Winkle had also been busy. She'd overheard the exchange between Howard and Montgomery and had spoken with Bomber.

"They're planning a coup, a hostile takeover, a revolution, a – "

"Leslie, I doubt they'll resort to violence and besides, how many people are idiotic enough to follow a guy who has no plan other than 'regime change'?"

For the next few days Leslie kept a watchful eye on Montgomery and made a list of those he kept close to him. She and Bomber discussed bringing it up at dinner but the weather and the decision to have a bonfire moved events forward faster than anyone had anticipated.

* * *

"I say we take them all out and then get this convoy moving south again. It's ridiculous to move any further north…"

"Will, you don't mean," and here the man hesitated, "kill them, do you?" He wanted no part of murder. He'd seen enough barbarism in the last year and wanted nothing to do with it.

"What do you suggest, spanking them and keeping them locked up?" His response was sarcastic and intended to belittle the idea of anything else than total elimination of the 'leadership'.

The group broke up, each going back to their assigned RV and making preparations – all except the one decent individual in the group. Sure, he disliked being told what to do and when to do it but he disliked the idea of bloodshed even more and from what he'd seen in Will Montgomery's eyes, he'd keep eliminating dissent and the dissenters until he had a loyal following.

Everyone carried a pistol at all times. It was _Cooper's Rule #3 – Never go anywhere outside the assigned RV without a pistol or other weapon._ No one would think it strange if Montgomery and his group were armed. If anyone asked about the rifles and shotguns, he'd just tell them they were going on guard duty after eating.

* * *

The park had an outdoor amphitheater that was ringed with picnic tables where people enjoyed band concerts and live performances in better times. The bonfire was ablaze and some of the 14 children under 12 were playing near it under the watchful eye of several adults.

The Core Group was sitting around with the others, enjoying the fire, relaxing conversation and a stew that was good even if some of the ingredients were not easily identified.

Montgomery and his eight followers confronted them with weapons at the ready.

"Bomber, we're not happy with the way you and your friends are running things. We're taking over. Hand over your weapons and no one will get hurt. You and your friends can take your luxury RV and whatever food you have and leave in the morning. My men will take you into 'temporary custody' until morning."

He turned to address the convoy, _his convoy now_, his face ablaze with triumph at gaining his objective with so little hassle and he started to laugh but it died in his throat.

Tasha Myers, Winkle and a handful of 'new arrivals', including the man who'd balked at murder, were standing there, pistols drawn and aimed at him and his group.

Sheldon stood up and yelled, "Leslie – NO!" but it was too late for Montgomery and three of his comrades who'd pointed their weapons at them.

It was over almost before it began. Tasha motioned their friends to disarm the four live mutineers who had either the luck or sense to drop their weapons.

"No, Sheldon. This stops here. You'll just lecture them until they see the errors of their way, forgive them, promise to include them in decisions and _they won't warn us next time!"_ yelled Leslie, waving her pistol around while she talked.

Winkle and her squad rounded up the survivors and led them over behind a stand of pine trees. Sheldon jumped at the sound of the volley of gunfire and then got up and stormed away out into the darkness with Penny fast on his heels.

* * *

"Sheldon, wait for me! Jesus, I know you're upset about what happened but – "

"UPSET? Upset means 'turned over or spilled'. I am so fucking angry with her that I…I don't want to talk with anyone right now. I don't want to be involved in any of this crap any longer. I'm just a follower, Penny, just as I told you in Pasadena. You and Winkle and Bomber and…and yes, your dad – you're okay with murdering people because they disagree with you. But not me, Penny, NOT ME!"

"Sheldon, that's not fair! They would have murdered us once they separated us from the group, Sheldon. And quit yelling at me! I was sitting right beside you and I wasn't part of any of it but – "

"But what, Penny?" He had stopped and turned and now faced her, his own face hot and red with anger and disgust.

She took a step back from him, afraid of him for one of the few times since all this had begun. She knew he desperately wanted to find someplace where it wasn't necessary to loot, scavenge or deal with things like the Elect or the nuts at Offut Air Force Base.

"She did the right thing and for the right reasons. And she was right about you, honey. You would have forgiven them, tried to make them see your point of view and it would be only a matter of time until – "

"I want no part of this, Penny. If this is the price of survival, I'm not sure I want to." He was deadly serious and she was so shocked and angered at his attitude that she backhanded him across the face, staggering him. He wiped blood from his mouth where his teeth had torn the inside of his lip.

"How _dare_ you! We're not murderers, Sheldon Cooper, we're _survivors_ and we have noble intentions and…and…" She turned and walked quickly away from him, appalled that she'd struck him but angry that he was so blind to the changes the Choker had forced on all of them.

'_He still thinks that Good will beat the shit out of Evil every time. He lives in a comic book world where the good guys always win in the end. I've fallen in love with a man who denies the 'New Reality' and it's going to get him killed one day and then where will we all be?'_

* * *

Except for the night guards, everyone had returned to their RVs to calm down the kids and talk quietly among themselves. There were some who applauded Winkle for executing the 'traitors' but there were a few who felt as Sheldon did but kept their opinions to themselves. They were in the minority.

Penny slept in her parents' RV, not ready to face Sheldon, uncertain _how_ to approach him.

After rearranging the convoy families into the additional transports, they drove north towards the Door Peninsula, Manitowoc and then a brief foray into Sturgeon Bay, still dispersing units to scrounge, scavenge and search for both diesel and gasoline.

Sheldon had hardly slept at all and when he did, he was plagued by dreams of Winkle gunning down Will Montgomery and his followers. He sat in silence in the Beast while Bernadette drove and Howard offered commentary on almost anything they passed, casting casual glances back toward his friend. Both he and Bernie were concerned about his emotional state.

His right cheek and his lip were both swollen but it was the look in his eyes that made them worry.

* * *

Bomber was driving the army fuel truck and Leslie was seated beside him, as usual. She stared out the window at nothing at all. She was thinking about how to restore her friendship with Sheldon. She needed him in her life. He wasn't a lover but he'd become so much more than a friend since leaving Pasadena.

_Sheldon had walked away from her when she sat beside him at a picnic bench for morning coffee. He went behind the stand of trees where they'd left the bodies for the night and began digging a mass grave. When she attempted to help him he glared at her and said, "You've done quite enough already, Dr. Winkle. Perhaps it would be best if you familiarized yourself with the road map and left this to me."_

_Leslie blinked back tears, whether of anger or humiliation she wasn't sure. She rounded up a few men and sent them to help Sheldon 'bury the bodies from last night' and then went to assign areas for the various teams to search in along their route._

Penny had decided to ride along with her mother while her dad drove the 18-wheeler that contained their discovery of the canned goods. She needed to talk and her mother had always been a good listener.

"Mom, I-I hit Sheldon last night. We were fighting about what Winkle had done and he said something horrible and I backhanded him and now I feel like I'm going to lose him…"

"Spending the night apart makes really good sense then, doesn't it?" her mother said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"What was I supposed to do, Mom? He was so angry and I'd hit him…"

"You should have stood your ground, apologized for hitting him, and then just showed him how much you loved him. He's a curious breed, your Sheldon. Part man child, part evil genius and part of him is full of goodness and the belief that life _must_ make sense and when it doesn't, he tries to _make_ it make sense."

"So what should I do?" Her mother's description was exactly how he was. How could her mother know him better than she did?

"Help him make sense of things. Don't let him sulk and stew or he'll come up with some off-the-wall strategy and tactic that he thinks will set the world right again. He'll do something dramatic, not because he wants attention, but rather because he cannot live with things as they are now."

* * *

He had a solution. He glanced at the map and then clicked on the dialogue box that opened when he rested the cursor on it.

'_Hmm, a solution to fuel supplies and the possibility that the bridge over the Straits may be impassable…'_

He did some quick calculations and grinned. They'd shave almost 300 miles off their journey by cutting across the lake. _'Now, if only the ice cooperates and the weather is accommodating and our means to cross the lake is in place…I'll be able to begin my search for Melissa in less than a month.'_

For some time now he'd been concerned about the need to defend the fledgling colony but after moving his cursor north to the Straits he found his answer to defense _and_ shelter. They wouldn't need a stockade or earthworks…the Great Lakes would provide a bulwark against casual depredations by looters or militia.

His mind raced to organize his thoughts and he smiled for the first time in a long while.

"Howard, how familiar are you with steam-powered engines?"


	34. Oops

_A/N: I had a PM regarding my treatment of various cities and so here is my disclaimer:_

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and any similarities between anyone or any place is mere coincidence and should not be taken to heart or to a lawyer. After all, it's not my fault you live in BFE, is it?

* * *

Chapter 33 The Plague

The convoy spent the better part of a day in Sheboygan, adding 14 more colonists and prepping two new RVs for the additions.

Luck was finally turning their way. Four of the group worked in the medical field. One was in her final year of medical school and she was appointed the convoy's 'doctor' and was assisted by a 60-year old retired nurse, a Natural Immune. The other two were dental hygienists and with help, the two quickly established a dental clinic in their RV. A dentist office was dismantled and reassembled in it although some remodeling was required.

Sheldon and Howard 'borrowed' a pickup truck and drove ahead into Manitowoc to see if their 'transport' was in harbor of if they'd have to look forward to several more weeks on the road. The ice on the lake had almost disappeared and Howard was beside himself with questions and things to do.

* * *

"Sheldon, according to your atlas, and thank God you had the sense to download it before the Web went down, the Badger is coal-powered. That could be a problem depending on which landing stores the coal. If we have coal, we have power."

"And if we don't have coal on our side of the lake?" This was an area where Howard's experience and training would shine. Sheldon didn't have a clue about alternate energy sources except the more esoteric ones like cold fusion. Something as ordinary and mundane as a lump of coal or a cord of wood simply was beneath him.

"Well, 1kg of wood is equal to about .5kg of coal so if we would need, say, 100 tons of coal for the trip, that would be 200 tons of wood. Of course, that's a rough approximation but you get the idea."

"And assuming we can get coal or wood, you're certain you can master the intricacies of what is virtually our best hope of reaching our destination without exposing ourselves to needless combat or delays due to the weather, break downs and such?"

"Sheldon, just _where_ is our ultimate destination?"

Everyone wanted to know just where the convoy was headed and he'd always said 'some where the Choker won't be a threat year round and somewhere we can put down roots and begin to rebuild.'

"Well, Howard, now that we don't have to leave our fate to the vagaries of whether or not a bridge still stands…"

Howard glanced from the road to his friend and then back again, barely missing a body lying in the road. They'd seen few bodies on the main roads but once off the beaten track, foraging parties came across more and more of them. Their instructions were to 'ignore them, don't try to do the civilized thing and bury them, there are just too many and we have so little time…'

"Steady on, Howard. I don't appreciate the irony of surviving so much only to succumb to a traffic accident. Perhaps slowing down might be appropriate since – "

The rest of the smart-assed remark died on his lips when the windshield was struck by a burst of automatic weapons' fire and the truck veered toward a storefront. Sheldon's mind registered that they were about to crash into an 'all night diner' and he giggled as the big pickup jumped the curb, careened across the sidewalk and plowed into the diner.

He heard Howard's scream abruptly cut off as the airbags deployed and again Sheldon's mind began spewing out the physics of the impact and probable damage to the vehicle and its occupants. When he reached 'probable injury and perhaps even death', he lost consciousness.

* * *

"What do you mean, he's gone? Gone where and with who?" Penny was, as they say, in Winkle's face, mere millimeters from it, in fact, but Winkle stood her ground, weary of dealing with the drama that was 'Shenny'.

"First of all, Barbie, it's with _whom_. Secondly, I wasn't presented with a request but rather a done deal. He and Howard fueled up a local's pickup truck and headed north towards Mani…damn these Indian names…Manitowoc, up the coast a ways. They left at sunrise and I have no idea why they were in such a hurry but Wolowitz was champing at the bit even worse than your boytoy."

Penny looked like she was ready to burst into tears. Sheldon had been studiously avoiding her and it was her own damned fault. She didn't know that Winkle was also being shunned and felt just as prone to tears at that moment as did the blonde.

"Look, Penny, I'm sure they're off on some adventure to look at the world's largest ball of belly button lint or something. They took along weapons and two of Dr. Dumbass' survival packs and it's not like they're going looking for Missy or – "

"He – he told you about that? About looking for his sister? You don't think – "

"Not for a second. First, Wolowitz wouldn't leave his wife and second, they were prattling on about 'steam engines' for God's sake. Maybe the dumbass found a train on that atlas of his. You know how he loves trains."

"Quit calling him 'dumbass', Leslie. He's hardly stupid and he's mad at both of us for what happened back in Port Washington. He's pissed off because you did what was necessary and because I didn't back him. And he's mad because I punched him and now he won't even look at me or talk to me or…"

Now came the tears and Winkle found herself hugging Penny while fighting back tears of her own.

She and Bomber were a couple, to be sure, but she had been in love with Sheldon Cooper on some level or another for the past 8 years and this sojourn of theirs had only underwritten the fact in her mind.

'Dr. Dumbass' was the Winkle equivalent of 'I love you, Sheldon' and had been for years.

Penny approached her dad about going after Sheldon and Howard. It was 2:00 and it was only an hour or so's drive to Manitowoc and even given the nature of the two scientists to get 'lost in the science', they were late.

"I'll get a bunch of guys together and we'll gear up and be there in no time, Slugger. Are you two still…" The look on her face told him everything he needed to know. Sometimes kids were so dumb.

* * *

Manitowoc

They drove cautiously into Manitowoc in three vehicles: a civilian pickup truck, the army fuel truck and a 5-ton dump truck that Wyatt figured would double as an armored personnel carrier and carried most of the 15 men and women who'd volunteered to make the recon/rescue.

The city of nearly 30,000 (pre-Choker) looked desolate with bodies left in the street and litter everywhere. There had been a fire here, a bad one, and Wyatt's eye picked up the signs of the use of explosives and the many shell casings that littered some streets. He'd been in Viet Nam for two tours and recognized the signs of battle. The nearly 60-year old farmer still possessed the instincts of an 18-year old combat vet.

"Oh shit!" the pickup's driver exclaimed as he pulled the truck over to the side of the road. Standing across the road blocking the mini-convoy's path, was a ragged line of children, none more than 12 or so. And they were armed and dangerous. What had really caught the driver's attention were the two scientists they were sent to find – tied upright in wheelchairs in the center of the street.

They were either unconscious or dead.

"Let's drive up a little closer," said Wyatt. And then, into his CB radio, "We got us a situation here. Get ready to deploy in a skirmish line and take cover behind the vehicles and along the sidewalks. No one fires until I say so."

A reply was quick in coming from the dump truck. "Um, Wyatt, this is Flanagan. They're just kids for Crissakes. We can't just – " Martin Flanagan was the man who'd tipped off everyone to Will Montgomery's treachery and he was a good man, but Wyatt felt 'maybe a little _too_ good' for the here and now.

"No one's shootin' unless they start it. They got Howard and Sheldon and we aim to get 'em back," Wyatt replied tersely, interrupting him. The last thing any of them wanted to do was to shoot kids.

* * *

It was nearly dark when the CB radio on Bomber's belt broke squelch but the there was nothing. Everyone was standing around waiting, hoping to see the rescue party come barreling down the road but some were giving up hope.

Jenny was sitting with Penny and Bernadette in the Beast just quietly talking and drinking tea. Coffee was at a premium and reserved for special occasions.

"It's all my fault. He never would have just up and left with Howard if I'd just taken the bull by the horns and talked with him." Guilt was etched in her fine features.

The CB radio on the table between then broke squelch and distracted them.

"What's with this static? It's never done that before. We'll need to find more of these and distribute them so that every team has at least one backup." Even in a depressed mood, she still thought about survival. Sheldon had stressed the need for 'an excess of equipment we'll need to survive, Penny, even to the point of redundancy'. It was a typical Sheldon word – redundancy – and she had to ask Leslie what it meant.

Martin Flanagan drove like a man possessed. He blew past abandoned vehicles like they weren't there and periodically he tried the CB radio but figured he wasn't in range yet. It was line-of-sight and that meant a maximum range of 3-4 miles in this hilly terrain.

All the radios were tuned to Channel 9 with some units on foraging tuned to their own frequency for local communications but all foraging was done and all teams tuned to Channel 9.

Penny picked up the radio when it squelched again and she swore she heard a man's voice lost in the static.

She ran out of the Beast and climbed up on its roof using the integrated ladder on the rear. It had the effect of increasing range and she heard loud and clear 'hurt [static] doctor ready to [static] bring food [static] kids [static]'.

She plunged down the ladder hollering for the medical unit to get off their asses and in their RV. They were needed up the road.

* * *

Manitowoc, MI

Howard was conscious but throwing up, a clear indication that he had a concussion to go along with his broken nose and split lip. Sheldon had been spared the concussion but had a badly broken nose, swollen eyes and a broken or badly sprained right wrist. He was conscious and had stuck his injured wrist inside his field jacket and zipped it up. He was deep in conversation with a couple of the kids about the SS Badger and what they knew about her and where the coal was kept.

The child soldiers had been taking them from the accident site back to their 'dormitory' using what they had at hand when they heard Wyatt's trucks coming. They did what they'd seen in a movie once – put the 'enemy' in front and stand in a line behind them. Mel Gibson would have been tickled to think that his legacy lived on in the minds of kids.

"Honest, Mister, it was an accident. He was screwing around and when he saw the truck he got scared and fired. He didn't mean to do it. Please don't kill him!"

"I might spank him but kill him? Whatever for? We're not like those ones who took your mothers away and killed your dads if they couldn't work. Nope, we're the good guys."

Wyatt's CB radio squawked and he answered it, hoping it wasn't one of his group reporting trouble but it was Penny demanding an update.

"Their truck got shot up and then driven through a brick wall but they're both alive and talking. Have the medical RV in the lead and bring up the 18-wheeler with the canned goods. We got some hungry young uns here that could use a good physical and some good food."

"Daddy, let me talk to Sheldon, pleeeeeease?" She used her little girl voice that seldom failed to get Wyatt to do what she wanted but not this time.

"Penelope Ford, I gave you orders not a request now you can talk to Sheldon after the medics say he's okay but first, get the convoy up here. We're on the street bordering the lake. Just follow the smoke."

* * *

**A/N: I lost 200 hits last chapter so I'm going to do some triage on my plot diagram and wrap this up.**

_Rep_


	35. Scoping Out the Opposition

Chapter 34 The Plague

Sheldon's wrist throbbed in time with his heart and it was both annoying and distracting.

"Okay, Jeremy, now where did the bad guys come from? Which direction? Do you know where they live? Are your mothers with them or – "

"Across the Canal. They live across the Canal and that's where they took the grownups. Across the Canal."

'_Crap on a cracker. Sturgeon Bay is 'across the Canal. I wonder if there's a connection between these marauders and the research facility? Jeremy said they wore black uniforms and black helmets with black visors – probably for intimidation. But still – we'll need a better plan if we're going to slip in and search the research facility. Bernadette may have some information she hasn't thought to share with us yet.'_

Sheldon stood with Jeremy at the foot of the gangway to the _Badger._ It wasn't a train but it was a magnificent mode of transportation and Sheldon appreciated its functional design and it sheer size.

"Are you guys gonna steal the _Badger_? Can I come? It'll be like being a pirate sailing the – "

"No, Jeremy, we're not thieves. We need it to get our people to someplace where other people won't take away the women and moms and kill or take away the dads. No one is using it and it's a shame to let it just rust away when others need it."

Jeremy scuffed his torn tennis shoe on the dock and looked disappointed. "So then you're not really pirates? You're just like us but looking for a new home?"

"Would you and the other kids like to join us? We're nice and there are lots of people who would love to take care of you and teach you things you'll need to know. We can ask your friends if they want to come along."

"But what about our moms and dads? Aren't you going to save them?"

"Yeah, Moon Pie. What are we going to do about the bad guys across the Canal?"

Penny had followed one of the kids to where Sheldon was 'talking' with the kid who'd shot up his pickup truck and almost killed him and Howard. She hoped he wasn't being too hard on the kid. He was just trying to survive.

She was surprised when she saw him standing with a child of maybe 9 or 10 and talking with him earnestly about how they weren't pirates or thieves, just people looking for a safe place to live. He wasn't his normal 'lecturing Sheldon' and she was surprised at how easily he was talking with the kid.

She could see his injured arm and the swelling on his face but it didn't stop him from being gentle with the boy. He was always surprising her. Considering his germaphobia and his dislike of 'rugrats' in restaurants and movie theaters, he was doing okay with the scared boy.

"Hi, Penny. This is Jeremy, the Machine Gun Kid. He's a good shot and I think we should think about asking him and his friends to join up with us. We can use a few younger men, don't you agree?"

"What about their folks, Shel? We can't just – "

"They're across the Canal and ain't ever coming back. No one who goes across the Canal ever comes back," said the boy, in a quiet voice as if talking to himself.

Penny stooped down and pulled the boy into her arms and hugged him, ignoring the stink and filth, and just hugging him like she felt he needed. Sheldon watched with the strangest look on his face but when he saw her watching him, he looked away.

"Are you hungry, Jeremy? I'll bet I can find some peaches or something else good to eat. C'mon, let's let Dr. Cooper alone while he plans what to do with this big boat, although he might be in trouble with his girlfriend if he doesn't quit haring off at the drop of a hat. She'll probably want to kick his butt for not seeing the nurse and our doc about his arm. I think that would be fun to watch, don't you?"

There was a message in there and even Sheldon Cooper could detect the subtext. She was pissed and he was in serious trouble.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Sheldon, but I don't have any idea of what the Veridian research facility actually looks like, just its location in Sturgeon Bay, nothing more. There were 10 research scientists attached to the facility. If I remember correctly, a couple of virologists, some biochemists and a couple of neurobiologists."

Sheldon nodded and thanked Bernadette and then fazed out for a moment thinking about Amy and wondering what happened to her. She wasn't a Natural Immune and she'd left once the Choker's mortality rate hit 50% to go home and be with her mother.

'_I don't even know where 'home' for Amy is? All that time together and she never really spoke about her home other than all her crazy aunts and other demented relatives. Odd. I haven't even thought of her once since leaving Pasadena.'_

"Sheldon, are you okay? Want me to get Penny or Leslie?" She said his name two or three times but he had a faraway look in his eyes like he was seeing something far away.

"Um, no, that won't be necessary. I was just thinking, that's all. Thank you for your input, Bernadette. It's nice that you and Howard are so right for each other. I never would have imagined you two dating and here you are, married and everything."

Now she really was worried. Sheldon talking like a normal person and being all nice and pleasant was highly unusual.

"Why don't you be a lamb and have Leslie find us a nice place where the kids can clean up and we can all relax and get to know them – and feed them, of course. Growing bodies and all that…"

* * *

They set up shop in a school yard and the first order of business was feeding and then examining the kids. Scavengers picked through Walmart and Target and found clothes and shoes and other items the kids would need. Sheldon had insisted on looting the toothbrush displays and gathering up all the toothpaste they could find.

"We have no idea when we'll stumble across a competent dentist and an abscessed tooth could be fatal in these times."

The kids' new 'dormitory' was simply the activities room strewn with sleeping bags and various toys. Shower facilities were nonexistent so the colonists, as they now referred to themselves collectively, started up a school bus and drove the kids to the local high school and used the facilities in the field house.

That evening the group met all together in the small auditorium to discuss options. No one wanted to remove the children from Manitowoc if there was the slightest chance their parents might return.

"According to Machine Gun Jeremy, 'no one comes back from across the Canal'. It would seem that they are being held as slaves or forced labor somewhere north of the ship canal. Before we can do more, we need intelligence on the opposing force and also ways of crossing the canal."

Several men volunteered to take small boats and cross the Canal but Wyatt vetoed the idea. "If they're using the Canal for defense, they'll have it under observation. Using small boats is a good idea but I'd head up the coast a bit and then land somewhere and come at them from the rear."

Bomber had been strangely quiet throughout any discussions since it was decided to head for the research facility to find the insulin substitutes. He felt humbled that no one thought twice about the risk, just the reward and so he'd kept any opinions to himself but now he just had to speak up.

"I don't want anyone hurt or killed if the opposition is heavy. It's just not worth it. The needs of the many come before – "

"Bullshit!" Sheldon was on his feet and angrier than anyone had ever seen him. Penny reached up to pull him back to his seat but he shook her off.

"That Spock crap has no place in this situation. Not only do we need to get to the research station but we also need to try and free up the kids' parents, or have you forgotten the storage units so quickly?"

He fixed them with a glare and then said quietly to Bomber, "Our primary objective remains unchanged, Hideki. Finding the drug. You will not be the only diabetic in our group in the future. Would you doom those people, too? Our secondary objective – well, it's our obligation to at least _try_ and free the captives."

Howard had been impressed with Wyatt's handle on tactics and so he proposed, quite loudly, that Wyatt be appointed their military commander for any operations. There was no dissent.

* * *

The nurse had wrapped Sheldon's wrist in an ace wrap and cautioned him to see her immediately if he experienced numbness of if the fingers of the hand got cold and then sent him on his way with a few aspirin for the pain.

Penny ate dinner with Sheldon and then said 'good night' and left. He knew they hadn't had their 'talk' about the 'execution' of the mutineers and figured that she'd just stay with her folks until things calmed down – until _he_ calmed down. It's what he would do if their positions were reversed.

He talked to the kids again, trying to see if anyone knew anything about what was 'across the Canal' but struck out.

He and Howard sat in the Beast drinking tea and talking about 'before' until well after dark. They talked about Raj and how he would have fit in perfectly with the melange of people they'd swept up in their quest.

Howard finally succumbed to the rigors of the day and Sheldon wondered if the Engineer's health was failing. He seemed out of breath a lot and Bernadette seemed to be keeping an eye on him more than what was normal. He made a mental note to ask Bernadette.

Everyone else had retired but his mind wouldn't let go of things and so he launched the balloon antenna and sat in the dark listening to the sounds of a dying world.

Arms snaked around his neck and he stiffened in preparation for a fight when warm, wet lips found his ear and breathed, "Come to bed, Sheldon. It's cold without you. I'm sorry for arguing about what Winkle did – the arguing not my opinion. C'mon, Moon Pie…make me forget."

* * *

Wyatt kissed his wife goodbye and walked with Sheldon down to the small marina where his 'reconnaissance' team waited. Four boats, twenty men, and an agenda. Bernadette had wanted to go along just in case the way was clear to the Veridian research facility but Howard had had a fit and Wyatt vetoed it anyway.

"Sheldon, I know we haven't talked much but I want you to know that Jenny and I couldn't ask for a better man for Penny. You take care now and don't take any shit from her unless she's right."

Sheldon didn't know what to say so he just nodded in agreement. He remembered how Wyatt had fawned all over the idea of Leonard and Penny and wondered if he ever thought back to those times and what his opinion would be today. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Leonard would have got them all killed by now.

"Sheldon, see if you and Howie can't get a head of steam up on the _Badger_. I'd appreciate it if you could put together a loading plan so if we have to un-ass this area in a hurry it won't devolve into a cluster fuck."

"I'll have everyone ready to load up before you return. I think we should also consider taking everything we can get from the Tractor Supply lot like we discussed. I've already assigned a team to bring the entire contents of the Purina Feed & Grain mill. We should also look to the outlying areas and begin bringing in livestock and chickens and whatever."

"Make up one of your lists and we'll get right on it when I get back."

He and Wyatt had poured over the information available on the destination Sheldon had finally settled on – a large island in the Straits - once he found the _Badger_ and coal. It was large enough, easily defended and offered what they'd all been seeking – a safe haven to begin the process of rebuilding.

Wyatt was impressed with the facilities on the island and with a small population of year-round residents, they wouldn't be seen as invaders considering what they had to offer in return for sanctuary.

* * *

Recon Force  
Upper Door Peninsula  
Final Overnight

So far they'd found nothing but devastation and bodies. They had beached their boats on the Lake Michigan shore and proceeded inland figuring that no one would expect them from the northwest.

The village of Sister Bay, once home to 800 people, had been burned to the ground. There were decayed bodies in the street and in cars. It was like someone was trying to burn out the Choker by eliminating anyone or any place that might be infected. Even the boats in the small basin had been burned or taken elsewhere.

The same was true of every hamlet, cluster of homes, and farmstead they came across including the Town of Egg Harbor and the village of the same name just south of it.

This was their final night before advancing to recon Sturgeon Bay 4 miles to the south. Nerves were frazzled and there was little conversation among the group. Wyatt had planned on splitting his force into two groups – one to secure a bridgehead at the Canal while the other investigated the Viridian research facility that had been surprisingly easy to locate since it had a Yellow Page ad.

They set out at first light. It was raining and hopefully it would hide their presence from whoever had taken the people from below the Canal.

* * *

Manitowoc

They took two school buses, the Army fuel truck and several pickup trucks that they managed to get running. The 'Relief Force' of 60 men and women, armed to the teeth with everything from pistols to assault rifles, set out at 2am for the Canal. It was a two-hour drive in the old days but Sheldon and Wyatt had allowed 4 hours to make the 50-mile trip.

They never planned to cross the Canal. It was only for show, a distraction to allow Wyatt's force to slip in, do their recon and then slip out again.

At least that was the plan.

* * *

Upper Door Peninsula

The recon element of Wyatt's force came across ploughed fields and stockyards of cattle and long sheds of chickens and turkeys. They also found the slave pens where more than 80 starving men were huddled under sodden blankets under tin roofs.

It was the hardest decision Wyatt Ford had ever had to make but it was the right thing to do. He noted the location on a Exxon roadmap and pushed on to the research station itself. In the back of his mind he was planning a rescue mission.

The research facility was empty. It looked like the staff had just walked out leaving computers on and half-eaten meals in the cafeteria. The labs were open and Wyatt and his people took their lists and started taking equipment and drugs and research notes.

One man found Wyatt and held out a large bottle of pills labeled 'Insulin Substitute Samples – quarterly dosage'. There were over a hundred pills in it.

"There's a carton with 20 more bottles in it. We also found notes and computer discs, all nicely labeled. We got what we came for."

"Good work. Let's get out of here and back to our people."

* * *

Sturgeon Bayou Ship Canal  
Southern shore

"What do you think, Sheldon?" Bomber had used binoculars to scan the far shore. There was no sign of any people, no fires, no movement of any kind.

"I think whoever took those people is a lot smarter than I am. The eastern end of the channel has a large jetty where boats and lake craft can discharge cargo and yet there are no signs of equipment or even litter. I think it's a trap designed to lure us in and then catch us with the Canal to our backs."

"So what do you think we should do?" Bomber had an idea. They'd driven by a sign that point to a Coast Guard station and he wondered just what kind of water craft might be there. The Coast Guard was the law enforcement arm for the Great Lakes and had armed craft.

"I think we should wait for Wyatt and get a report on what they've seen across the Canal. There is no point planning a crossing if we don't know what's waiting for us. Too risky, Hideki, and we're too lightly armed to take on an organized force that's dug in. This isn't paintball and we've been very lucky so far."

* * *

The small group of colonists where were tasked with reconning the Canal never made it that far. They stumbled onto a facility where the women were being housed – a glorified brothel – and after a brief firefight, they headed north with almost 50 women.

They had 4 small craft and no way to transport that many people south of the Canal.


	36. Rescue Mission

Feed me with feedback pls. And if you leave a crappy review, at least have the diploid bodies to log in.

* * *

Chapter 35 The Plague

Wyatt was furious with the leader of the recon force that he'd sent to scope out the Canal and the approaches to it.

"How are we gonna feed 'em? How are we gonna get them the hell out of here? We have 4 boats and even if we ferry them to Manitowoc it will take two or three days."

"Wyatt, I couldn't just _leave_ them there! My God, how can you be – "

He shoved the Exxon road map into the man's chest. "See the 'X' in red? I left a labor compound full of half-starved men to complete my mission. If we win, we can pull them out, but we know _nothing_ about what's facing us."

The man mumbled apologies and Wyatt relented and told him that he probably would have done the same thing but that "this is a new world with new rules and you need to accept that the Colony and its needs come first."

* * *

Manitowoc

Howard, Sheldon and Bomber stood on the quay and looked at the Coast Guard boat that was moored there.

"Are you _certain_ you can run the motors, Howard?" He knew the answer but wanted to hear Howard say the words. He'd learned a lot in the short time they'd been on the road, short in comparison to the sum total of his life.

Never make assumptions.

Sighing, Howard said, "Yes, Sheldon, I can handle the motors. Someone else will have to do the driving because I can't be two places at once." _'Take that, crazy man,' _he thought with affection.

Now it was Sheldon's turn to sigh. He couldn't drive a vehicle worth a damn and a boat (or was it a ship?) was well beyond his comfort zone.

"We'll ask if anyone has experience on craft of this size. Surely someone has boating experience or has been in the Navy?"

"Ship – I think the proper term might be ship."

The CGC _Lake Huron _was an impressive vessel. One hundred thirty feet long, Sheldon had read the specifications on the commissioning plaque, a top speed of 37 knots and a crew of 20, it had been built in 1962 specifically for law enforcement and rescue duty on the Great Lakes.

Bomber had seen the small sign 'Manitowoc Coast Guard Station' and brought the two scientists down to see what could be scrounged. What they found was more than they ever would have hoped for.

It was an _armed_ cutter, with a 20mm autocannon mounted on the foredeck and positions for .50 caliber machine guns strategically placed along the decks. It would make a superb escort vessel for the _Badger_. It would be tragic to come all this way and have the _unarmed Badger _fall victim to pirates or worse.

"Well, shall we go on board and see if Howard can start the motor?"

"_Engine, _Sheldon – motors are things they hang off the back of small pleasure boats. This sucker has gas turbine _engines_!"

* * *

It took 3 hours for him to make the journey from where the landing party had met the boats to Manitowoc and it had taken all the extra gas they'd brought on board. To run at 35 knots had sucked up gasoline at an unbelievable rate but worth the exchange for less time in transit. Wyatt had been adamant: get to Manitowoc and bring help and transportation for all the women and men.

While the Canal team leader sailed south to Manitowoc, Wyatt and his entire force would free the men from their pens and rendezvous back at the beachhead and wait for pickup.

He moored his boat at the yacht basin and ran to the school where the colonists had set up a base camp. Those who saw him and had loved ones on the reconnaissance party followed him with fear and concern on their faces. He ignored their questions and demands and found Bomber and the others huddled around maps and charts they'd found on the cutter.

"We found the parents from here and other towns. Wyatt's got the women but there are too many of them for us to transport. We found the drugs and notes and computer discs but we have to rustle up anything that floats so we can bring them all back. Wyatt's going to free the men so there'll be about 150 to transit plus the recon force."

Bomber took the large bottle of tablets that were going to save his life. He looked at the man and hugged him. "Bro, I – I can't begin to thank you enough for these."

Winkle breathed a sigh of relief and then started figuring out how many boats they'd need, fuel requirements and was getting bogged down in details.

"Leslie, we'll need to find blankets and warm clothes for the people. It's cold on the lake and it'll get colder still after sundown. We need to organize a scrounging party and get things collected."

Penny was already making a list of things they'd need to scrounge and soon she and Leslie were neck deep in what-ifs.

"How many people can we cram on the _Lake Huron?" _The vessel had been fully fueled before they'd arrived and Howard had easily mastered the intricacies of the gas turbine engines and had started them and run down the pre-sail checklist.

"Doesn't matter, Sheldon, since we don't have a pilot or someone who knows how to handle something that big."

The man who'd brought the pills and message was one of the bus people. He spoke up for the first time since he'd delivered the news.

"I conned a transport in the Navy. It was 800 feet long. How big is this one you're talking about?" His name was Howard Kaminski.

Howard smiled and elbowed Sheldon who just smiled that secret smile of his that Howard found so damned annoying.

"One hundred thirty feet. A Coast Guard Cutter. We could probably make it up to the Point in 4 hours or so. Show us on this chart just where you left Wyatt and the others…"

* * *

Above the Canal  
Door Peninsula

Their 'whores' were gone and the convicts that made up the Veridian Dynamics' 'security police' were angry and began searching for them. The scientists who'd organized them and kept them in line with weekly shots of a 'temporary vaccine against the Virus' let them go on their merry way and returned to their research in the temporary lab set up in the local hospital.

When the virus first hit, the scientists had thrown their lot in with the townspeople but soon the locals turned on them, blaming them for the Choker. By some quirk of fate, all the scientists were Natural Immunes and after the first few months, there were damned few townspeople left. They emptied out the survivors from local jails and conned them into believing they had a vaccine but it was a weekly dosage and wasn't 100% effective but was better than nothing. The convicts never knew they were being shot up with distilled water.

There was no vaccine.

They set their new 'police force' loose on the locals, going from town to town rounding up people to work in the fields and cook and serve the police and the scientists. Someone had to keep the wheels of civilization going so they needed labor to keep the power going and the toilets flushing – and entertainment.

A few of the police force ran headlong into Wyatt's rescue party and after a brief but violent engagement, only one of the thugs made it back to their headquarters. He reported that 'hundreds' of armed and organized 'soldiers' were heading for them.

The head of the research facility called the commander of the police in for a meeting and told him bluntly that they were to 'defeat the enemy force' or there wouldn't be any more vaccines shots and that 'withdrawal symptoms often led to a horrible death'.

The commander, a convicted drug dealer, 'commanded' through fear and intimidation and he used all his skills to motivate his two hundred men and women. "You will do this or the scientists will be killed or captured and we'll all die horrible deaths from the Choker."

The ambush survivor led the police force up the coast to where his ten-man patrol had been overrun. The bodies had been stripped of anything useful and left to rot in the road where they'd fallen.

The police commander sent out patrols with orders to find the 'invaders' and report back so that they could plan an ambush. All the patrol leaders used CB radios to keep track of the other teams and to report any discoveries. They filled the frequencies with constant chatter.

* * *

"Wyatt, turn on your CB to channel 19 and listen to the chatter. They're lookin' for us and it won't be long before one of these patrols of theirs finds us."

Wyatt looked at the Exxon roadmap and grinned. "Then we find them first, fuck 'em up, regroup and then find another patrol and repeat as needed."

* * *

North of Manitowoc Harbor  
Eastern Shore of the Door Peninsul  
Lake Michigan

The _Lake Huron_ carried armed men, woman and weaponry. The decks were crammed with people anxious to get to their friends and rescue them and the ones they'd freed.

Two miles behind the _Lake Huron_ trailed the _Badger_ at a much lower speed_. _The ferry would transport everyone back to Manitowoc where hopefully parents would be reunited with their kids.

"Penny, you do realize that this is the largest Great Lakes ferry ever built? You're piloting history and someday people may erect statues to you in your honor."

"Is there a point in there, Sheldon? All I'm doing is following the _Lake Huron_ exactly as you instructed."

"The point is that you're making history and our children and their children need this recorded in chronicles so that our history won't be forgotten – so that _we_ won't be forgotten – in the busy times of rebuilding civilization."

He'd whispered his statement in her ear and his breath wafting across her sensitive ear sent chills down her back but it was 'our children' that caught her attention.

"Will we have children, Shel? I want a boy and a girl, at least." Her mind was full of images of skinny boys with black hair and blue eyes prattling on about physics and history and literature.

"We've yet to come across anyone who can marry us, Penny."

"Um, can't the captain of a ship marry people? I mean I read that in a book someplace. The _Lake Huron _is a ship and Kaminski's the captain so technically – "

"Why Penny Ford, I never thought of that. When this is over, we'll board the _Lake Huron _and have 'Captain' Kaminski marry us all legal and proper."

He edged closer to her as she stood holding the great spoked wheel, concentrating on her compass bearing since the _Lake Huron_ would soon be 'over the horizon' and she'd have to rely on the plotted course.

Sheldon ran his moistened lips up her neck and whispered, "And then we'll have some time for a honeymoon and, oh, the things I've been hearing from Howard and Bomber…things I never dreamed were possible between two people. Mmm."

Her knees buckled and he wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. "Sheldon Cooper, that is just so mean! Keep your lips on your face, lover boy. I'll bet you I've heard about – "

He whispered something in her ear and she blushed and leaned back against her husband-to-be. "Okay, so I haven't heard about _that_ one but – " He whispered something again and she reached back and grabbed him through his clothing and laughed. He was just as aroused as she.


	37. Death

**A/N: Short but wrapping up several threads of the story. I'll finish this sometime this weekend.**

* * *

Chapter 36 The Plague

Wyatt grinned as he listened to the 'police patrols' chatter on the CB radio. He lost his grin when he remembered being on the receiving end of the same tactics so long ago in Vietnam. It had been terrifying and humbling. He wanted emphasis on 'terrifying' since they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. That's why he'd insisted on stripping the 'police' bodies of weapons and ammo.

'_We're the Viet Cong surviving on the leavings of our enemy. Jesus, I've come full-circle.'_

* * *

Somewhere on Lake Michigan

Sheldon had spelled Penny at the wheel while she rested and maybe took a nap in the comfortable captain's chair. He kept his eyes focused on the many gauges and dials that Howard had carefully marked with green bands for 'good' and red bands for 'bad'. One of the gauges was slowly inching through the green band and heading for the red – the one labeled 'boiler pressure'.

His mind wandered, more from boredom than anything else, and he thought back to the massive chemistry project that Bomber had launched after a simple demonstration and lesson from Sheldon and Penny.

'Things are certainly different from the way they were in Pasadena. Everything's different – and not always a 'bad' different'.

Bomber and Leslie had been scrounging through towns and villages and had come upon a general aviation airfield with several small planes lined up, abandoned by their owners. The germ of an idea formed and by the time the two had returned to Manitowoc High School, they were practically bubbling with excitement and it got worse as Leslie started discussing the manufacture of the 'Sheldon Cooper Kitchen Bombs'.

The boiler pressure gauge was still inching towards the red band and Sheldon knew that something had to be done or all their plans and preparations would become 'turds in the punchbowl' spread all over the surface of a cold Lake Michigan.

"Penny, I know you're tired but I must ask you to take the wheel while I go downstairs and see about something."

She giggled and said, "Sheldon, it's 'below' as in 'I'm going below to check on something'."

He hated being corrected but had no time to discuss his vocabulary. "Penny, the wheel, _now!_" and he rushed from the bridge and took the ladder down to the main floor even as Penny's voice giggled '_main deck' _in his subconscious.

He stepped into the engine room and saw the problem instantly: the 'black gang' was shoveling coal into the firebox of the boiler with abandon, ignoring the gauges and common sense.

Heated words were exchanged and Sheldon grabbed the shovel from one of the men and close the firebox door with it, not wanting to burn the crap out of his hand. He was angry and it showed when he turned on the 'merry shovelers'.

"You idiots will blow us to New York if you don't follow the simple instructions Howard Wolowitz gave you. You don't shovel until the firebox is full. You tend it and keep it at a certain level as indicated by these gauges. Besides wasting my time, you've endangered the mission and this ferry. Go upstairs and sit on your dumb asses until I come for you."

* * *

Chippewa Township General Aviation Center

"Ready?" Bomber watched as the last boxes of bottles and jars of Cooper's 'Kitchen IEDs' were carefully loaded into the Cessna.

Leslie nodded, not wanting her voice to betray her fear. Talking about it was one thing but actually doing it was fucking _insanity_ in her mind.

"I'll bet you never thought you'd be flying a bombing mission instead of messing with lasers, right?" Bomber had been more excited about getting into the air again than Leslie. Truth be told, she was afraid of heights and her role as 'bombardier' scared the shit out of her.

"Are you sure they had to take the door off, Bomber? Couldn't we just cut a hole in the floor and I could drop them through it?"

"Just keep your seatbelt tight and nothing will happen, Les. This will be a piece of cake and a big surprise for the bad guys. 'Death from Above!'," he crowed.

Winkle just tugged her seatbelts tighter and closed her eyes and chanted '_He's a pilot, he can fly. He's a pilot, he can fly,' _to herself as Bomber completed the pre-flight and started the engine of the Cessna 150. It was older than he was and had fabric as it's fuselage but it _flew_ and Bomber was back in the air where he belonged.

* * *

Upper Door Peninsula

Wyatt listened to the panicky voice of one of the police patrol leaders as he called for reinforcements. They'd been ambushed by 'at least a hundred invaders' and they were being slaughtered.

He laughed and turned off the CB radio and gestured for the rest of his patrol to move out.

_'A hundred men, huh? Well, eight for certain and most of them didn't hit what they were aiming for but there was no time to train them.'_

He piled into the pickup truck and the other followed it as they drove down the road to the next ambush site. This was almost fun. Almost.

He heard his teams report three more successful ambushes with no casualties (this time around) and ordered them to rendezvous at the pick-up point, meaning the piers on the beach where they'd tied up their remaining boats. He looked at his watch and smiled. If things were on schedule by this time tomorrow they'd be on board the _Badger_ heading north for the Straits.

* * *

On board the CGC _Lake Huron_

'Captain' Howard Kaminski was in his glory. The last time he'd conned a ship had been in the Navy and it had been a trash hauler supplying the fleet but now – he was 'Captain' Kaminski and he was the one giving the orders.

He checked the radar repeater and saw the blip that was the ferry and smiled. Right on course and right where it was expected to be. If things went as planned, the _Badger _would pull up to the pier and take on the Colonials and those they'd rescued. He grinned at 'Colonials' – he was a diehard Battle Star Galactica fan.

* * *

Upper Door Peninsula

Enrique Salazar fancied himself a revolutionary and conveniently ignored his status as an unlicensed distributor of street pharmaceuticals. In his mind the only way to deal with these invaders was to find them and pin them down and then use massive force to destroy them.

The only problem was that the invading force seemed to be everywhere at the same time and he was losing more people than he could afford. Already there was grumbling about the need for a new leader – one with a plan, not just a loud voice and heavy hand.

His force was down and so he called all his patrols in and they assembled in what used to be the parking lot of a Food King grocery store. He stood on the bed of his personal pickup truck, all blinged out and painted in gaudy colors, and harangued his people and laid out his plan.

He was just getting to the details when a small plane appeared in the distance, flying low and relatively slow. Everyone turned to gape. No one had seen an aircraft of any kind in months and so it was sort of an historic moment for them.

* * *

"I see them, Les. When I give you the word, push out two full boxes and gravity will do the rest. We'll swing around and then come back at them but from a higher altitude. No sense offering them a target after they get over their shock."

Salazar shielded his eyes with his hand and looked at the small plane that was waggling its wings while a passenger leaned out and waved. A thousand thoughts went through his mind. Foremost was that if a group had airpower they could control a lot of territory – _he_ could control a lot more territory…

"Wave, Les! Make the nice men think we're happy to have found them. Get ready to dump the first box and then the second and then hold on – I'm going to go vertical…"

The men and women started cheering when the small plane waggled its wings and turned in their direction. When they saw the passenger lean out to wave, they waved back.

"Hold on," Bomber shouted and then held up and hand, counting down with his fingers and said, "Okay, push 'em out!" He pulled back on the wheel and turned away from the target just in case they failed to properly appreciate Leslie's kitchen treats.

The two cardboard boxes fell end over end, spilling mason jars and liquor and wine bottles in a random pattern with almost no overlap. The effects on the people below were immediate and deadly. The various containers had been wrapped in fabric that contained primarily coins and nails.

Enrique Salazar watched, transfixed, as the explosions ripped through his 'police', rending flesh from bone, limbs from limbs.

Forty-three cents killed him. A quarter, three nickels and three pennies ripped through his chest and he bled out in minutes.

Wyatt watched from the tree line as the kitchen bombs tore up the opposition. He gave a few terse instructions to his teams and then pulled himself up into the pickup truck they'd 'borrowed' and drove back to the beachhead. His people would know what to do and they'd follow instructions but the ad hoc platoon that had assembled itself from the prisoners were another deal entirely. They wanted vengeance.

* * *

Eight hours later the _Badger_ steered into it's berth in Manitowoc followed by the _Lake Huron _and offloaded their 'passengers'. The interdiction had not been without casualties: eleven dead out of the forty people that Wyatt had led north.

It would be a joyous time for some and a crushing loss for others.

Penny and Sheldon stayed on the _Badger_ for a bit before showing up and reuniting with their family and friends.

Sheldon took Howard Kaminski aside and asked him about the tradition of the Captain of a vessel marrying passengers.

"Dr. Cooper, I'm not a commissioned officer and – "

"You are the Captain of the Coast Guard Cutter _Lake Huron. _Will you marry Penny and I here and now or must we be aboard your vessel to make it legal?"


	38. Beginnings and Endings

Chapter 37 The Plague

It had taken almost a full week before the ferry _Badger_ was fully loaded with equipment, people and vehicles. Originally designed to haul railcars across the lake, the deck wasn't even half full when everything was onboard.

It should only have taken 3 days since they followed Sheldon's loading plan but they needed the additional time to decompress, allow others to enjoy reunions or to mourn, and, of course, for the wedding.

* * *

Somehow Jenny had scrounged up a wedding dress and Penny and her friends had taken great pains with her hair and makeup and so things were almost – almost – normal as far as wedding go.

The first surprise was when Sheldon presented her with a huge diamond ring he'd come across during their travels. "I wanted you to be engaged, if only for a few moments, Penelope. It seems only proper."

Howard and Bomber were 'best men' while Leslie and Bernadette and Tasha were her bridesmaids. Wyatt almost broke down in tears when Sheldon kissed his bride for the very first time. Jenny just elbowed him and handed him a handkerchief and then went to properly greet her new son-in-law.

The second surprise was an all-expenses-paid honeymoon getaway. The couple disappeared into a secure motel room while the rest of the colonists threw a raucous party that went on until dawn. There were many massive hangovers as well as a few embarrassed faces the next morning.

Sheldon woke up early, as was his habit, but instead of getting up and showering, he was yanked off his feet and onto his back and then assaulted by wet kisses and 'salacious mutterings'.

"Penny, I have to use the facilities. My word, woman, you were never this needy in the past."

"Go, do your thing and then come back. I've never been on a honeymoon before, and I want to spend every moment making love so I hope you're not hungry because you're not getting out of this bed – "

She shrieked with surprise and then started to laugh. Sheldon had scooped her up and was carrying her into the bathroom.

The third surprise was that Sheldon Cooper really enjoyed shower sex and so did his bride who confided that she'd 'never done it' before.

* * *

All too quickly reality set in. Another group of refugees from the Chicago area had asked to join them. They were clearly on the run and on their last legs. No one had the heart to openly ask, but it was quite apparent that some were sick from radiation exposure.

Penny and Sheldon were 'summoned' for a meeting on board the _Badger_.

Winkle was adamant that they turn away the people with radiation sickness.

"We simply don't have the means to care for them. We have no one with real medical training and these people are 'walking around dead' and will just use up resources the rest of us might need to survive."

"Then I suppose if one of us gets an appendicitis, you'll just leave us along side the road? Jesus, Leslie, when did you become so heartless?" Howard asked, unwilling to turn his back on the sick.

"That's different, Howard, and you know it. We can't take on people who are obviously dying. This is a new world and only the strong survive. In a few years things might be different but for now…"

Sheldon hadn't said a word. On one level he agreed with Leslie but on another he agreed with Howard. He wasn't willing to make a choice. He couldn't. He would abide by the will of the majority even if it sickened him. _'The needs of the many…'_

But then he had an epiphany of sorts and he softly asked Winkle a simple question, so softly that only a few people heard him.

"Leslie, what you say has the weight of logic on its side. At what point would you have turned Hideki out?" Dirty pool. A rotten thing to ask, but ask it, he did.

Winkle looked like someone had punched her hard in the guts. She turned to look at Bomber but he wouldn't meet her eyes, instead looking down at his feet.

"Bomber, this is a different situation. Surely you can see that? We can't just – " She loved him and would have done everything in her power to save him. Surely he knew that? She couldn't abandon him, not now, not ever.

"We're here in Manitowoc because Bernie said there was the chance of finding the insulin substitute or its formulas. All of you made the decision to come here and it was beneficial to me, sure, but look what we've done."

His voice got louder and soon he was no longer talking just to Leslie, the woman he loved but didn't like right this minute.

"We've freed people from virtual slavery and found secure transportation that will save us days and days of possibly hazardous travel, all because on the needs of one man. I say we take them aboard and nurse them back to health. Sure, some will still die but some will live. And I say we don't turn our backs on our fellow humans. If we do that, I don't think we deserve to survive – as a group or as a species."

* * *

Author's notation:

_**Before anyone starts to complain (1) it's how it's pronounced and (2) MSWord's redlining it bugs the crap out of me so live with it. It's pronounced Mak – IN – naw by some but MAKinaw by the locals.**_

* * *

The _Lake Huron _left the next morning, bound for their ultimate destination – Mackinaw Island in the Mackinaw Straits. Twenty heavily armed men and women lounged around on the deck while in the pilot house, Howard Kaminski conned the cutter towards the Straits.

It was their mission to reconnoiter the Island, make contact with any survivors and then 'negotiate' landing rights. According to Sheldon's miracle atlas, there were less than 500 full time residents of the island and they certainly didn't want to appear as invaders and stir them up. They were asking for sanctuary.

"Sheldon, I don't want you going with the contact team. I don't want you risking yourself. Let someone else be the hero, honey, you've done more than enough."

"Is that why you think I'm doing this, Penny? To be a hero? To quote something I read somewhere, 'a hero ain't nothin' but a fuckin' sandwich'. I simply feel that I am most suited to making 'first contact'. Look at me, Penny. Would you be afraid of someone like me if they walked up onto your front porch and asked for a meeting?"

"Sheldon, honey, believe me, you'd scare the shit out of anyone right now. You look like a _bandido_ with your BDUs and your knives and crossed bandoliers and your shotgun in your back scabbard. The beard and longish hair makes you look sexy as hell, baby, but that's not the look I want you giving anyone but me, understand?"

Wyatt led the small squad from the wharf where they moored the _Lake Huron_ to the landward side where four people waited for them. The _Lake Huron _had slowly entered the small harbor, navigating between the inner and outer breakwaters and sounded both its horn and sirens to get the attention of anyone on the island within hearing distance.

The four women were the only ones to respond. Everyone else was dead or gone to the mainland before winter set in and closed the lake.

It took two days to prepare to leave Manitowoc after word came back that the way was clear. The _Badger_ steamed into the small harbor and tied up to the old pier and 'Captain' Howard Wolowitz ordered 'all stop'.

They were finally home.

* * *

A/N: Tempted to leave it here but still a few things need to be handled. Have patience. Or quit reading. Machs nichts.

Reparata


	39. Some Things Never Change

Chapter 38 The Plague

Mackinaw Island  
Three Months After Landing

It was late spring and things were coming back to life. The great flocks of migrating birds were moving on and the land that had been cleared for planting was beginning to show the beginnings of life as well.

The Colonists, as everyone now referred to themselves, had first taken up residence in the Grand Hotel but soon relocated to abandoned dwellings that the Islanders had called home. No one thought it strange. It was how things were done now.

Penny and Sheldon moved into a small cottage next door to her parents. Bernadette and Howard lived across the street. It was like a Mr. Rogers neighborhood except that electricity was only on from 5am until 9pm and there was the constant need for maintenance on so many things that they'd all taken for granted.

* * *

Penny Cooper sat on the commode and tried not to cry again.

They'd fought bitterly, neither pulling punches, each desperate to have the other see their point of view. It had gone on for several days and finally it came to a head.

"If you go on this stupid 'guilt' trip that's motivated by nothing more than what you think is your duty to your sister, then we're through. I mean it, Sheldon. Leave and I won't be here when you get back. There are a lot of single men who would love to be with me."

"Then there's no point in me returning, Penelope, whether I'm successful or not, is there? Be well, Penny."

He looked like he wanted to say something else but she had turned her back on him and stared out the bedroom window, not seeing anything through her tears.

She heard him stomp down the stairs and slam the front door.

Sheldon was leaving to search for Melissa. Despite meticulous planning for the search, Penny couldn't shake the feeling that she had just had her last conversation with her husband and that she would never see him again. That prompted another bout of tears that she couldn't stop.

* * *

Sheldon was angry and no one wanted to get between him and his destination. Normally people would greet him, stop to chat or ask a question or, more often, make a complaint, but not today. No one wanted to be set up as an imaginary target by those angry eyes.

He walked to the small airstrip and found Bomber sitting in the commuter lounge talking with Leslie and drinking some kind of hot beverage.

Leslie took one look at Sheldon and made herself scarce muttering that she'd go make coffee for them. Bomber laughed but it died in his throat when he saw the look on his friend's face.

"Sheldon. What brings you down here? Need a lift?" It was a joke, of course. The 6 small Navajos and King Airs that lined the runway were used to ferry scrounging parties to the lower peninsula or the short hop over to St. Ignace across the straits on the Upper Peninsula or UP. They'd been abandoned here when things fell apart.

"No. Don't be silly. I want you to give me a check ride in the smallest and most fuel-efficient aircraft in our inventory. I mastered Flight Simulator and can pilot anything up to a Boeing 727."

"You're joking. There's a world of difference between a computer simulation for a PC and the real thing. It takes – "

"Either you will or you won't. Make up your mind because if you don't, I'll just take the first aircraft that's fully fueled and do it myself."

"This is about going to Galveston to look for your sister, isn't it? You and Penny are still fighting over it."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow and Bomber chortled. "Hey, it's a small town and with the windows open it's hard not to hear you two 'discussing' it."

"Check ride, Hideki. Yes or no?" He'd already moved his gear over in anticipation of an abrupt departure and once again he marveled at how easily he could predict his wife's reaction.

He hadn't expected her ultimatum and now he was rethinking the whole marriage thing. She said she loved him but how easily she said she'd 'hook up' with another if he did not comply with her unreasonable demands. Obviously the woman hadn't paid attention when reciting her wedding vows.

Bomber looked up at his friend, really looked at him. He looked like he hadn't slept in days and it was obvious that something had finally driven him out of his home and to the airport. His eyes were bloodshot and his hands were in fists by his side.

"Doc, you don't want to be rash in deciding this. Take a couple of days to think this through and if you still want to fly to Galveston, I'll fly you down myself."

"Like hell you will, Bomber. If the dumbass wants to commit suicide, then by all means, let him fly it himself or take a truck or – "

"Thank you for your kind words, Leslie. Apparently Penny's not the only leopard around here."

"What the hell does that mean, Sheldon Cooper?" Leslie demanded, closing the gap between them and jabbing his chest with a finger while she yelled at him.

"The old saying a leopard doesn't change its spots. As in 'dumbass' and 'hooking up' with someone else."

"Sheldon…" Leslie blushed and wished she'd kept her big mouth shut but she didn't want Bomber flying off on a fool's errand and getting himself killed. She put her hand on his forearm but he shook it off and turned to Bomber.

"I'll take the bomber. It's a relic and need only hold together for the southern leg of the trip."

"Wait just a damned minute, dumbass. How are you getting home?" Winkle suddenly felt a chill run up her spine. _'Oh shit! What did Barbie do this time to piss him off? Honestly, sometimes I think __she's__ the dumbass in their relationship.'_

"I'm going home. You've reached safety and Penny is safely with her parents and I'm sure won't lack for those who wish to 'hook up', so the task I set for myself in Pasadena is complete and now I must discharge my responsibilities to my own family."

"Does Penny know that you're leaving?" Bomber asked. Sometimes handling Sheldon Cooper required sainthood but somehow this time the fault was mostly with Penny.

"We said our goodbyes this morning." His face was awash with tics even though what he said was the truth. Okay, he'd been the one to say goodbye. She simply refused to listen and turned her back on him both literally and figuratively.

"The check ride, Bomber? Yes or no."

* * *

Bomber hated Sheldon Cooper with a passion. The son of a bitch took off in the Cessna 150J they'd used to bomb the bad guys near the Canal as if he'd been flying for years, not minutes.

He did a few touch-and-goes before actually landing the airplane and properly shutting it down.

"How many bootleg hours do you have in this airplane, Sheldon?" He tried not to sound like he'd been played.

Sheldon glanced at his watch and replied, "I hour and 47 minutes. Why?"

"Shit. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're a natural. I'd fly with you in this crate."

"Don't think Leslie would appreciate you tagging along on a one-way trip, Hideki, but thanks for the compliment. I know this has a STC kit so it burns regular gas but with a 35 gallon tank I'll still have to set her down to refuel from the plastic cans I'm gonna carry so I figure it's a 2 day trip if I cruise along at 100knts."

"You're an idiot if you do this, Sheldon Cooper." He would have said more but Sheldon simply said, "She's my sister and I need to know what happened to her. I can't not know, understand?"

He topped off his extended fuel tanks and loaded 3 12-gallon plastic gas tanks in the rear area behind the seats and took off for the first waypoint – Manitowoc – where he'd top off the tanks again from local stores and spend the night before heading south first thing in the morning. He had looked for her but she hadn't even bothered to come and so he just hugged Winkle and waved to Bomber.

Penny spent the night at her parent's place and her father totally ignored her after hearing what she'd threatened her husband with if he went to find his sister. Her mother wasn't much better but her dad's reaction really hurt. He and Sheldon had gotten really close since Omaha and she couldn't help but feel hurt that he'd taken Sheldon's side in the argument instead of hers.

Sheldon's plan had called for a 3-day flight down to his Meemaw's place. There was a county farm-to-market road that fronted the property and it was straight as an arrow for more than two miles. He'd hoof it into town and begin his search and be back in no more than 10 days.

* * *

He hadn't figured the effects of spring storms. It took him 8 days to reach his grandmother's place. He'd had to hole up in Ft Smith, Arkansas for 4 days because of thunderstorms and high winds. The Cessna flopped around the sky like a leaf in such weather and it wouldn't have lasted a nanosecond in tornado weather.

Cooper Farmstead  
22 miles NE of Galveston

He buzzed the farmhouse but got no response. He was very careful to fly around urban areas after being shot at near Longview, Texas, but this was his ancestral home and he wasn't worried. He set the Cessna down and then brought it around and taxied up the unpaved drive to the house. It was nearly dark and he couldn't see where the rains had washed out a section of road leaving a gully nearly a foot deep.

His mind was years in the past or he would have seen it. But he was thinking about the house. He didn't plan on going in. He didn't want the memories to come flooding back. In his current emotional state, he didn't think he could handle any more grieving.

The front landing gear plunged into the gully and collapsed and the old Cessna went nose down. The propeller struck the graveled road and snapping off and the fuselage followed the rules of thermodynamics and flopped over on its back.

Sheldon was trapped upside down. His arms weren't obeying him and he couldn't reach the Koch fittings. There was the smell of gasoline and then a whooshing sound.

There was a flaring of light and a sudden eruption of heat all around him. He couldn't breathe and he wanted more than anything to see her just one more time…

The blessed cool of darkness swept over him.


	40. Onjects May Be Closer Than They Appear

A/N: To the guest who commented about cliff hangers…maybe just for you I'll go on summer hiatus…bwahaha.

And to the guest who threatened me with [gasp] marriage if I didn't update...TA DA

Reparata

* * *

**Please read carefully!**

Chapter 39 The Plague  
Mackinaw Island

'The Colony'

He was overdue but only if he hadn't meant what he'd said to her in the heat of an argument. That there was no point in coming back. Of all the things she could have threatened him with, the one thing she said was the one thing that would strike hardest at his vulnerability.

Sleep was hard to come by and food tasted like shit so she was basically doing only those things that would enable her to survive, nothing else.

Ten days became fifteen and then twenty. She realized that dead or alive, she'd probably seen the last of Sheldon Cooper. The realization struck hard late one night and Tasha and Bernie took turns over the next week making sure she didn't do anything stupid.

She kept herself busy during the day helping out as best she could with anything that needed a strong back and a pair of willing hands. The nights were different and difficult. She drank herself to sleep but gradually quit drinking all together.

'_He hates it when I drink and he has more than enough reason to hate me for what I said. I won't turn into the town whore and drunk no matter what. I'm Mrs. Sheldon Cooper and I'll always be his wife. There's no room in my life for another man. I broke so many promises to him. I promised to help him find his sister and instead I broke yet another promise, to 'forsake all others' and threatened to leave him and find someone else. No wonder he hasn't come back to me. I wouldn't come back to me either.'_

* * *

Cooper Farmstead  
22 Miles N/E of Galveston

He heard raised voices but couldn't focus on what was being said. His face felt like it had been dipped in acid and his shoulders ached. Someone was cooing nonsense syllables in his ear and then he felt people grab his wrists and heard them count.

"One, two, three – now!" He screamed when they ripped his arms off and then he died.

* * *

Mackinaw Island  
'The Colony'

"Penny, we're going to start up a school. We've got 41 children of various ages and we need teachers. Would you – " Tasha never got to finish because Penny interrupted excitedly. This was something meaningful that she could contribute – after all, she'd been a waitress.

"Yes! I can help out with setting up a cafeteria and – "

"Penny, we want you to teach, not be a damned lunch lady. We have six 9-year olds and those would be your kids. We have books we took from schools along the way and your husband outlined an entire curriculum for each grade level – with a concentration in physics, of course! No offense, but we have to teach them basic skills first before something so…hard."

"Yes, I'll do it. I need something in my life and getting these kids educated – how better to honor his memory. Yeah, when do I start?"

'_Honoring his memory'_. Oh, yeah. Deep down inside she hoped he was dead rather than a prisoner somewhere or worse, or living life with someone else. It was a selfish thought and she hated herself even more for wishing he was dead. She missed him and deflected any man's attention. But she was only human and hating someone who passed away was a part of grieving.

Her 'classroom' was outside under trees in warm weather and inside a disused souvenir shop that had been cleared out and now was replete with tables from a bar and chairs from the Grand Hotel dining room when it was too cold or rainy to be outdoors.

* * *

Cooper Farmstead  
22 Miles N/E of Galveston

"Wake up, Shelley, and eat your soup. We don't got no croutons but it's better than what most folks got. C'mon, wake up. You've slept enough."

His face hurt like when he was sunburned and his arms hurt too much to move. The smell of the soup made his mouth water and he strained to sit up but a hand against his chest stopped him.

"You just lay back and let me feed ya, ya big idiot. You might fly good but you got to work on your landings. Now open wide and I'll tell you all about where you are and what happened to ya. That's the boy. Wasn't that good?"

She spooned soup into his mouth and patted his lips with a linen napkin. She started to cry and handed the soup off to her brother saying, "I just can't, JR. You do it."

Sheldon lay there with his mouth open like a baby bird waiting for a worm. A man started talking and spooning soup into him, not bothering to wipe his mouth between spoonfuls.

"Yer plane's toast. If ya hadn't lost a door somewhere in yer travels you'da burned up but we were able to drag yer scrawny ass out. You got a little crispy around the edges but it's no big deal."

He shoved another spoonful into his little brother's mouth and wondered just when the hell his nerd brother found the time to learn to fly. Hell, he and those other geeks spent all their time watching SciFi movies, playing stupid video games or working in some damned lab.

"Anyhow, both yer shoulders were out of joint and ya got a couple broke fingers on your right hand and your face got a bit scorched but then you weren't good lookin' to start with."

"Who…" he managed to croak but then ran out of breath.

"It's me, Shelley, yer big brother, Georgie Junior. Can ya do us a favor and eat and then maybe 'Lissa will quit bawling every time she sees ya. Hell, she's as bad as that fella that showed up from the big passenger plane that put down in Houston fulla dead Chokers. He can't stop crying and keeps goin' on and on about livin' in some 3rd world shithole – like this is some kinda paradise or sumthin'."

He stuffed another spoonful of soup into his brother's mouth and wiped his lips gently so as not to break the blisters. He didn't know why he was here after all this time but he was glad he was.

They'd already had a couple of run-ins with some local 'war lords', mostly gang refugees from Houston, who thought they could horn in on lands worked by families for nearly 200 years. The family could use another gun.

* * *

Sheldon fell asleep soup with in his mouth and some time during the night he swallowed 'down the wrong pipe' and woke up coughing with someone pounding him on the back.

"Sheldon, you must wake up and listen to me. We are in grave danger here and we need to leave this place and seek out a sanctuary in the north. The Choker has again mutated and the death toll is terrifying. Your injuries are keeping us here. You must wake up and get strong, for the journey ahead is long and arduous."

Sheldon had been in and out of consciousness for nearly 4 days and had slipped into natural sleep just a few hours before swallowing his mouthful of soup. He opened his eyes and winced at the bright light and covered his eyes with his arm.

"Please turn off the lights. And why are you here in Galveston instead of Delhi with your family, Raj? Not that I'm not pleased to see you but we put you on a direct flight to India and yet, here you are…"

"Some of the passengers developed the new strain of the disease and by the time we could contain them, well, there was damage and then one of the pilots was stricken and the flight diverted to Houston. Several of us decided to return to California but then word filtered out about the bombs…"

"So you came here to see Missy and my mom. Thank you for thinking of them. I – I had an obligation to discharge and once fulfilled, well, here I am."

"Yes, _here _you are, my friend, but where have you been?" He wanted to hear the entire tale knowing it would be something to marvel at. Sheldon had changed and he wanted to know what Hell's fires he'd been through to make such changes in his friend.

"I joined up with Penny and then we picked up Leslie Winkle. I had hoped the two of them would press on to Omaha alone where they could seek asylum with her parents but Pasadena became untenable. Once we reached Omaha…"

Raj stopped him, knowing he was tiring. "Sheldon, why don't you rest some more and we shall all eat dinner together and you can tell us all about your odyssey."

"Howard and Bernadette – they're with us er…the Colonials, and both are healthy again and doing well. Howard showed his skills at engineering and saved us all. There are nearly 400 people restarting in an almost idyllic place, Raj, and I want you all to go there. It's safe…and we fought many skirmishes along the way to get there."

"We will definitely talk at dinner, my friend. Howard and Bernadette and you and Penny…"

"Yes. We got married, Raj, but I don't think it survived this trip. I had to come, Raj. I had to know what happened to Melissa and she left me because I wouldn't put it aside."

"Sheldon, don't be a fool. If she married you – "

"I'm tired. Let's talk at dinner, Raj. So, you and my sister and brother are living here together? Is it safe?"

"We'll talk at dinner. Rest, my friend."

* * *

Junior was standing out in the hallway. He'd been listening and now he had a problem. Rajesh loved his sister and she loved him and he'd long since put his prejudices aside and 'gave his blessing' but this was too much. This was their land, their home, and he didn't want to leave it to become some beach boy on an island someplace.

"You listen up, Raj. Me and Missy and Sheldon are Coopers and this is Cooper land and has been since 1830 when the first Cooper came here from Kentucky and got a land grant from the King of Spain his self. This is our home, not some damned island in the sun where people sing Kumbyah and wear hardly nothin' a-tall."

"Junior, this place is unsafe. Do you want your sister to be passed around by hoodlums and raped until she's dead? That is what they do. We need to leave, to seek asylum someplace where our children can live long and happy lives. It's not here, surely you can see that?"

He could. He just didn't want to, was all. He wasn't the smartest bulb in the chandelier but he was a man of the land and this land was theirs by right of passage through the generations of Coopers who'd come before him.

"I'm stayin' put and my brother will back my play, you wait and see. We can defend ourselves and protect what's ours. Between them gangs killin' each other over scraps of what's left and the Choker, we'll survive until - "

"There is no cavalry coming to our rescue, JR. If we stay here, the animals from the cities will overrun us and take your land and cattle and yes, Missy, and dance on your grave."

"Doubt it. They haven't stopped to bury anyone yet, Raj."

Sheldon had heard the debate between his best friend and his brother. Both were right but neither one could or would stop and listen to the other. His brother was right. This was Cooper land but they couldn't rebuild civilization from this wide spot in the road.

As usual, Raj, the ethical pacifist, had missed JR's point entirely. There were some things worth fighting and dying for. The people up on Mackinaw Island were worth fighting and dying for. All they needed was a plan of action and time to gather what they'd need to drive north and eventually contact the Colonials.

They wouldn't come empty handed like beggars. They'd bring their cattle and neighbors along too. The Colonials had to eat and these people could grow stuff on rocks.

* * *

That night after a dinner of Meemaw's canned goods and fresh beef, Sheldon recounted as much as he cared to about the days before landing on the island.

They drank coffee and ate peach cobbler and answered one another's questions before Sheldon began to tire but put the only tenable solution to his family – and yes, Raj was family now – on the table.

"This is our ancestral home and we all love it here. Our kin are buried here and once upon a time our family futures were out there in the pastures and fields but not now."

He gave his brother a stone cold look, almost sneering at his naïveté.

"This place is indefensible and JR, before you start, I've had a lot more experience at this than you have. We need to gather up all our surviving friends and neighbors, 'convoy up' and haul everything we need to sustain us now and in the future to the Straits. We take everything that's of value in the new world and burn the rest. We scorch the earth as we pass and leave nothing for the carrion feeders in our wake."

He knew it would kill JR to burn this place to the ground but it was necessary to kill off the scum. His Texas twang slipped into his tantrum almost without him sensing that something had changed.

"That's what we're gonna do and tomorrow we're gonna start. JR, you might be the oldest Cooper, but I'm the smartest and have experience you couldn't hope to match. This is the way it's going to be."

He gave them all his patented glare and then said, "There isn't a single person on the Island who even knows the words to Kumbyah, JR. And it gets 30 degrees below zero in the winter so don't think they're strollin' around in shorts and haltertops and huggin' trees and working on their tans."

His brother looked at his empty plate, not wanting to meet his brother's glare.

"JR, I'm gonna work your ass off. Raj, you're gonna get your hands dirty and Missy, you're gonna be our schedule keeper and inventory control. I want us to be safe and on the Island before the first snows."

Although he was tired, he spent hours answering their questions, salving their consciences and allaying their fears. By sunup they had a list of neighbors to contact, inventories to fill and a hundred other things to get done yesterday.


	41. Trash Haulers to the Rescue

Chapter 40 The Plague

JR and Melissa took the list of friends and neighbors that they'd put together around the kitchen table after dinner and started their visits. Sheldon knew that people wouldn't feel threatened if Missy was along to hold JR's mouth in check and to use her natural charm and charisma to make people see the advantages of relocating.

JR quickly realized that at the rate they were going, it would snow in Galveston before they got done with their list. Instead, the pair simply drove to each house or farm and told them of an important meeting at their Meemaw's place the next night to discuss the threats they faced and a possible solution.

It was almost dark by the time they got back home but they managed to reach 23 of the 28 on their list. Of those 23, six would never be able to attend. Their bodies were rotting in their beds, victims of the mutated Choker. The smell usually tipped them off right away and sometimes they didn't even bother pounding on the door. If it wasn't the smell it was also the dead or underfed stock that provided the first clue.

* * *

Sheldon and Raj had ferried two of the large motor coaches from a Galveston dealership up to their small community. It had taken almost the entire morning but the afternoon had been well spent beginning their modifications. Papaw had always believed that a ranch should be self-sufficient and so he put together a small welding and machine shop that would be the envy of small businesses.

"Sheldon, where did you learn such skills? Surely these weren't taught in the various schools and universities you attended?" Raj watched as Sheldon tack-welded metal grilles over the side windows of the big buses and explained the whys and wherefores of what he was doing.

"In various shops and locations in Pasadena. I suppose you would call it a crash course offered by the School of Hard Knocks." He wheezed a laugh. His ribs still hurt from where the 5-point restraints of his seat belt had squeezed him when his Cessna crashed.

"We'll cannibalize the fencing around the elementary school for the doors and windshields. What I'm most worried about is the availability of sufficient weapons to provide us with offensive capabilities along our route. I sure could use the expertise of Winkle and Bomber at scrounging. They found the most interesting things that invariably came in handy along out trek."

Raj left and then returned shortly with a large Yellow Page book for the 'Greater Galveston Area' and simply said, "We'll let out fingers do the walking, my friend. It clearly states that anything you can imagine is available within these pages."

* * *

Meemaw's Ranch

They held a meeting of all those families they'd made contact with at Meemaw's place and showed off the modified coaches and laid out the game plan.

Sheldon's involvement was limited to explaining the Colony and describing the Island and the two closest towns (deserted) and the advantages and drawbacks of relocating. He didn't take any active leadership role for the simple fact that to these people he was 'Sheldon the crazy/smart kid' who'd left at an early age and never really came home again.

Missy and JR had more standing in the community that he or Raj did so he left it up to his siblings to sell the program. It was a hard sell. Most of them felt like JR that this was their land, their past and future and they didn't want to tuck tail and run.

Things were getting loud and Sheldon hadn't really changed all that much. He still hated confrontation, especially when it was loud and emotional. He finally just stood up, waved at the group, and walked off to do some more tinkering on the coaches.

There were a lot of looks exchanged and a lot of whispering among friends and neighbors and finally one older man, Jeff Mattox, asked why their brother had left.

"Where'd he go? Don't he care what's happening here?"

"He left a family behind to come down here and check up on Missy. I think right about now he's thinking 'why the hell did I bother?' and I can't blame him. Look, either we build a central defensive point and we all run there when things get ugly like in Indian days or we burn our bridges and go North. The Choker ain't particular nor are those scum from the cities. Dead is dead."

* * *

Raj had slipped away during the yelling and arguing that followed and found Sheldon busy tinkering with 55-gallon drums and hoses for one coach.

"You know this is very hard for them, Sheldon. They have to give it all up and it is hard for proud people to run."

"Proud and dead if they don't listen to reason but I am not totally without sympathy. Tomorrow we need to investigate all these Army Reserve and National Guard locations and see what we can scrounge. The Air Force has a facility up in Loftus that we need to check out, too."

"So you're just going to turn your back on – "

Sheldon whirled around and Raj took a step back. The look on his friend's face scared him. He looked like he was ready to kill something. When he spoke, there was no doubt he was one of the people he was talking about. His accent, phrasing and language were not those of Sheldon Cooper, PhD but of Sheldon Cooper of Texas.

"I tried. That's all I can do. Some people just stick their heads in the sand and try to hide from what's comin' but that don't stop what's comin', just makes them feel good until they die. You can't change their minds. You can't force 'em to give up the 'known' for the unknown."

"Raj, tomorrow is another day I'm away from the Colonials and another day away from Penny. She probably thinks I'm dead or not coming back because of her ultimatum. I'm tired of being tired. I just want to go home."

"We need a radio, my friend, so you can find out what's happening on the Island and talk to Penny. Tomorrow we scrounge for one. Your balloon antenna is a good idea. You'll feel better once you know she still waits for you."

* * *

They bypassed the National Guard and Reserve Centers and headed for the Air Guard airbase since it was the farthest away. They'd work their way back to the Cooper ranch and if they had to overnight out on the road, they were prepared.

They drove up the long straight cement roadway to the front gates that appeared to be closed. From their vantage point, Sheldon could see the large tail assemblies of several aircraft but no people – in fact no signs of life at all.

He stepped out of the first coached they'd completed and walked towards the chain link gates intending to cut the lock off with the bolt cutters he'd brought along.

'_Just once, just one time, I'd like someone to greet us with 'Hi, glad you're here. We could use the help', but no, it's always abandoned and picked over and…'_

"HALT! This is a restricted area and we will use deadly force to defend ourselves. Get back in your fancy bus and get the hell out of here!"

'_Interesting…defend ourselves not deter access or any other military jargon. Perhaps…'_

"I am Dr. Sheldon Cooper late of CalTech and my companion is Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali, PhD in astrophysics. I am detached from the Colony and am here rounding up people to return north and rebuild. Our purpose here was to appropriate any equipment we might need for that purpose, specifically a long range radio."

"Get back on the bus! I won't tell you again."

"Perhaps you should contact your commander and tell him I'm here. Perhaps we can be of mutual aid to one another."

"I said – "

"And I gave you an order, airman, and I suggest you comply or face the consequences! Now, be a lamb and run and fetch your commander."

The guard knew the voice of command and this voice said 'I will be obeyed' despite the novel language. He keyed his radio and contacted the Tactical Ops Center and explained the situation.

A staff car pulled up at the fence and the guard saluted a small figure in Air Force BDUs. Sheldon hadn't known what to expect but it wasn't _her._

"I'm Major Dawn Holmes and I am commander of this facility – what's left of it. Who are you and what do you want?"

* * *

TOC

"So let me recap to be sure I have a grip on the fundamental plan. You want to take a group of ranchers and their families and livestock nearly 2,000 miles to some island you and your 'Colonials' have taken over."

"Basically, yes."

"You're out of your mind! Do you know what's waiting for you? Do you – "

"The Select have been crushed by the Mormons who are friendly to our group. There are Sioux Indians in Wyoming and they are also friends. Offutt Air Force Base has been taken over by a self-styled warlord and should be avoided at all costs. They lure refugees in and, well, they never come out."

She made a movement with her fingers that said 'more'.

"We started out with 3 people and now we're almost 400. We swept up refugees as we went along, adding vehicles and people, scrounging, taking everything of value from the dead and moved north through Wisconsin. We defeated a para-military force and added a Coast Guard Cutter and large ferry to our convoy and settled in on Mackinaw Island."

She stared at him, wanting to believe him but afraid to.

"Oh, and we picked up a group from the Chicago area. Some of them are probably dead by now from radiation poisoning but we couldn't just leave the to die."

"And you came home to Texas to find your sister and brother and your Indian friend here?"

"No, just my sister. I didn't know JR survived and Raj was supposed to be in Delhi and how he ended up in Texas is a story in itself."

"Okay, suppose I believe you. What do you want from us?"

"Anything you can part with. But I'd ask to use a radio to contact my people on the Island and…and my wife. She probably thinks I'm dead and we didn't part on good terms but I couldn't break my word and so I flew here and – "

"And crashed that Cessna and almost got burned alive. Sheldon, perhaps…perhaps these people would join up with us. We have a navy of sorts. Why not an air force? Your friend Hideki would love to get his hands on a, what did you call them, oh, yes, a trash hauler again."

"We don't haul trash Dr. Unpronounceable, and I'll thank you to – "

"Would you, Major Holmes? Would you come with us, fly us to the island and join our rebuilding efforts? What purpose do you serve sitting around waiting to be overrun by the scum from the cities? Bring your people and their families and join us. There's more than enough room and…and we need skilled people who aren't afraid to work hard for a better life."

* * *

A/N: If I can finish it, there's an epilogue to this that ties up the loose ends as far as I'm concerned.


	42. Epilogue Part 1

We All Go Down Together Epilogue Part 1

* * *

Loftin Air Guard Air Field  
Loftin, Texas

"Sheldon, are you absolutely sure you can do this? This bird is no Cessna and you, my gangly friend, are not trained and just because you got it up and down again once is no reason for me to let you fly it alone!"

"Dawn, Dawn, Dawn, I won't be alone. Rajesh will be in the second seat and if anything goes wrong, he's an astrophysicist and a Hindu and between his knowledge and the pantheon of deities at his disposal, any problem will be moot. Trust me, I have – "

"ME? Sheldon Cooper, you have definitely lost your mind if you think I'm flying with you 12 miles let alone 1,200! This thing is a collection of parts submitted by the lowest bidders and it's older than you are. No, I will not leave Terra Firma in your company. I will – "

"Missy will be so proud of you, Rajesh. As your future brother-in-law it behooves me to tell you that she has a weak spot for aviators."

The Major hid a smile behind her hand. Listening to these two made her day. She'd already met Melissa Cooper and if the woman needed any more weak spots for Dr. Unpronounceable it certainly wasn't apparent to her.

"I hate to rain on your parade but until we know just where we're heading and what the landing field is like, my birds are staying put." Her 'birds' were C-123 Providers that were destined for the bone yard and had ended up here for training purposes.

"Still no contact via radio, Dr. Cooper?" Sheldon had spent night after night calling the island. They launched a heliostat balloon to tether an extended antenna at 1,500 feet but so far, no response. The base personnel took over the day shifts. He didn't even know if Hideki still monitored the radio at night.

"No, but that doesn't mean anything. They may not have gotten around to launching night balloon antennas since they're keeping a low profile until they get situated. As far as landing, Dawn, I read where these aircraft were used in places with just dirt airfields in some instances. The strip on Mackinaw is paved and handled Navions, Navajos and King Airs with no problem."

"The field on the island isn't even on the charts. What happens if we fly all that way and can't land? Suppose there's livestock on the field? Suppose – "

"Suppose we just sit here and wait for food and fuel to run out. What then? Are you gonna convert those transports to rubber bands?"

"Sheldon," she said quietly, "I'm responsible for the people who man those aircraft and their families. I can't take a chance on unknowns. I just can't."

"Fine. I'll go first and land first. If I don't make it, you can land at Manitowoc and call for the _Badger_ to ferry your people and equipment and the farmers and their stuff over. It's big enough to handle 2 of your aircraft at a time and all the people and their stuff if you can get them aboard."

"We haven't made contact with the island. All this discussion is a waste of time if they don't know to come fetch us from wherever you said. Goodness, and I thought Indian names were difficult to pronounce!"

They laughed at Raj and he got angry. "Why are you laughing at me? It's true, I tell you."

"Raj, those _are_ Indian names."

"He has a point. If we can't contact them, we can't opt for the alternate field. It will have to be the Mackinaw airstrip or we'll head on to St. Ignace although it's probably not much better."

"When do we leave?"

* * *

Mackinaw Island  
'The Colony'

Bomber and Leslie were lounging around as usual in the passenger lounge waiting for word from the scrounging party that had headed up US2 from St. Ignace to Brevoort, a tourist town 35 miles to the northwest.

Leslie was casually turning the dial to see if there might just be a voice or music or Morse Code or anything to indicate that they weren't alone in the world. Of course, she knew they weren't alone. There were groups of nomads –

The radio crackled and Bomber was on his feet and had headphones on and was chattering into the microphone.

"Unknown station, repeat your last transmission. I say again – "

"…Holmes…flight of 6 C-123 Prov…landing condit…"

"Field is wet but stable. Repeat, wet but stable. Wind is from," he looked at the sock across from the lounge and laughed, "the wind is negligible, over."

"…teen minutes. Fuel critical. One pass then…nace, over."

"Les, go get Wyatt and a reaction platoon. We really don't know who's coming in and we shouldn't take chances. Just because it's a woman's voice doesn't mean they're friendly."

"Just call him on the CB, Bomber, it's – "

"And panic the others? No, go _tell_ him, Les. And then stay put until we know what's going on."

"Hideki Tanaka, I am not going to hide like some – EEEK – I'm so gonna kick your ass, flyboy…put me down!"

He dropped her onto a 4-wheeler and then ran back into the lounge/control tower. Holy shit – C-123s!

* * *

Texas Flight

Sheldon was excited and he was squirming in his seat in anticipation of seeing Penny for the first time in months. When his mind turned to possibilities, he settled down and put them on a back burner. He needed to get this malingering beast on the ground before he worried about his personal life.

"Raj, don't be nervous. I've done this hundreds of times in simulators – "

"Yes, simulators on a PC screen where you could push 'P' for pause and go pee or get a drink or a snack. There is no 'P' on the instrument panel, Sheldon and this is not your living room. Keep both hands on the wheel. My God it smells like Delhi back there."

'Back there' was the cargo bay currently occupied by 30 Brangus cows that were less than thrilled at being enclosed in a cold and noisy box that bounced up and down. It had been a long 10-hour flight but it would soon be over.

"There's the Mackinaw Bridge, Raj, and the island is just eight miles that-a way. Can you see it?"

"It is terribly small Sheldon. And I don't see an airport or anything like one."

"It's down there. Get on the horn and get landing instructions from the boss."

* * *

Mackinaw Island

Penny was adapting to the changes in her life as well as could be expected. They'd picked up a social worker from among the Chicago group and she never missed a weekly meeting with others who were grieving or having trouble adapting to the new normal. There had been a rash of suicides after the Colonists had arrived and the program had been hurriedly launched to combat the depression that others had succumbed to.

It helped to talk about things and after hearing some of the horror stories the others told, she realized how fortunate she was to have had Sheldon in her life, if only briefly and how much they'd over come to have arrived at his 'Sanctuary' on the island.

Penny threw herself into teaching and discovered her true calling. She loved her kids and they seemed to soak up learning. Penny just wished that her husband could see how much she'd learned from him about so much.

It had rained earlier so her class was indoors and they were talking about what the early colonists faced when they first came to America. Everyone quieted down when they heard the really loud sound of an airplane going overhead at a very low altitude. And then another and another and another.

She could see out the storefront windows. People were running up the paved track towards the airstrip. Some carried weapons and she immediately went into 'combat mode' and told the kids to go home and hide, just like they'd all practiced in weekly civil defense drills and she grabbed her H&K and ran towards the airstrip.

Yes, they were on an island but there were still factions on the mainland that would covet what they had and there'd been clashes since the summer began when 'recovery' parties ran into the occasional group of nomads living off the leavings of civilization.

* * *

Texas Flight

"Get those aircraft away from the runway. We have 6 birds and there's not enough room to taxi off the runway," Major Holmes said into her microphone to Bomber.

"Wilco. Give us a few minutes. Can you go around?"

"I can but I've got a crazy-assed physicist flying tail-end Charlie and he's running on fumes. I'd let him land first but…"

Hideki had people pushing the private planes anywhere they could to make room for the C-123s to park off the concrete landing strip.

"Say again…physicist? As in Sheldon Cooper, physicist and never-been-trained pilot?" Bomber was torn between laughing and worrying about his friend. Leslie had been down in the dumps since he'd disappeared and morning coffee wasn't the same without him around. She missed him.

"Yeah, and he's already augured one bird in and I personally don't want to have to inform his wife that he did it again. He apparently didn't learn much if anything about fuel management on his living room simulator."

* * *

Penny was huffing and puffing by the time she caught up with her dad's little squad and she started barraging him with questions that he couldn't answer.

"Slugger, you know as much as I do. Bomber had Leslie call for the reaction platoon and they're spread out all over the island doing things so I grabbed whoever had a weapon and this is what I ended up with."

Twelve men against who knows how many might be coming in on those transports.

"Are we being invaded, Daddy? Have we come all this way, lost all those people, just to have some high-tech assholes try and take it away from us?"

She was thinking about Sheldon and what he'd think about this situation. And where he was. And if he was alive and if so, did he think about her as often as she did of him? Did he regret that harsh exchange of words that were caused by her fear and his stubbornness?

* * *

Texas Flight

"Okay, kiddies, follow Momma Goose to the pond and look sharp. These are your new employers, friends and neighbors. Make an impression." Major Holmes thought about what she said and then clicked on the mike again.

"That's everyone but you Dr. Cooper. Try not to make the kind of impression an aircraft makes when it ceases forward flight after intersecting with the ground. Just get it down. It doesn't have to be pretty, just down. Over."

"I have already crashed and burned once. To do so again would be highly improbable given the odds. Would you like me to do the math? Over."

"'What I'd like,' Sheldon, is for you to land my aircraft and taxi onto the apron and shut down, if that's not too much to ask of a theoretical particle physicist in this brave new world of ours."

Apparently Sheldon was thinking of a suitable reply and kept the mike keyed and she heard Dr. Unpronounceable shriek, "Sheldon, goodness gracious, we are on fire!"

She cursed the physicist for demanding she release the 'hangar queen' so that he could haul additional livestock and sundries to the island. This was her fault. She shouldn't have given in to his badgering. Damn him and those puppy dog looks and those damned blue eyes! When the flaps jammed on his check ride and the fire bottle on the left engine suddenly discharged, she should have grounded it but no, he just had to fly. So she let him.

She remembered how he and Dr. Unpronounceable had laughed and joked as they painted each of the sides of the aircraft with a new designation. Gone was USAF and in it's place in white letters outlined in black: Colonial One.

It was an electrical fire someplace behind and beneath the instrument panel and Raj had already covered everything with foam from an extinguisher but the smoke continued to billow out from underneath the panel. There were sparks but no flames – just the eye-irritating smoke.

Raj opened his window to vent the cockpit but it just got worse so Sheldon told him to lower the ramp to a stand-by position in the cargo compartment to vent the smoke down and out of the cockpit.

Brangus are normally placid cud-chewers but between the dark of the compartment and now the smell of smoke – they panicked. Raj hung on the ladder and lowered the ramp as instructed but lost his hold and fell to the cargo bay floor and rolled around under the cattle, thoroughly coating himself in cow crap.

"Oh, Shiva protect me but I smell like the streets of Mumbai. Damn you, Sheldon Cooper! We should have found a train!" He narrowly missed being trampled as the big bovines moved instinctively towards the light of the partly opened ramp.

He scrambled up the ladder and buckled himself into the copilot's seat. Sheldon glanced over and paled, the smell and sight of his friend covered in cow plops making him gag. Raj just glared at him and muttered, "Not one word, Sheldon, not on single syllable do I want to hear".

* * *

Mackinaw Island  
Airpark

The first C-123 landed and the pilot reversed the big engines and the transport slowed and then turned left off the narrow landing strip and eased between two small aircraft and shut down it's twin engines. The ramp dropped and 40 women and children piled off and lined up beside the plane just as they'd practiced, watching the next transport ease into a textbook landing.

The final two transports landed and shut down their engines but didn't lower their cargo ramps and this immediately got the attention of the Colonials. Wyatt's 'reaction platoon', little more than a squad, formed a line and prepared to engage any enemies that might get off the plane.

Bomber had run out and greeted the crew of the first plane. Introductions were made but Bomber saw the defensive posture of the reaction platoon and asked, "Major, what the fuck is going on with those last two aircraft?"

"Chickens, ducks, geese, and a few sheep would make a mess of the runway, not to mention the dairy cows we picked up in Grayling. Dr. Cooper traded a few Brangus for them. I told the crew to stay buttoned up until Cooper landed – or crashed. Be a shame. The rest of the Brangus herd is on board."

"Doesn't he have an experienced copilot? He barely got the Cessna airborne."

"He's the last available pilot in the Air Force as far as I'm concerned . Reservists and air guardsman are all I could find. He's flying the 'hangar queen' but we needed the cargo room so…"

"His wife's going to shoot you if anything happens to him. Hell, I might take a shot myself."

"Friends?" She looked at the Asian man who looked so damned familiar…

"Best man at his wedding. He picked me up outside Barstow in the very beginning and we've been through a lot together. Scary shit but we always managed to get through it. This Island was his idea after the mess in Omaha."

* * *

Sheldon thumped the fuel gauge and it sank further against the pin. They were running on fumes and his port engine was beginning to miss. He looked at his friend and sighed_. 'What irony. We both survive incidents in aircraft that should have killed us and now…'_

"Rajesh, if we crash, do you know what's going to be the last thing to go through your mind?"

"That I love my mummy and daddy and my nasty sister but most of all, your sister, Melissa."

"Well, no, after that. The last thing?"

"No, I thought…"

"One of the Brangus!" he said, and then, "Bazina!"

"When we get on the ground I will instruct your sister to beat the 'Bazinga' out of you."

"Raj, you really need to work on your personal hygiene issues. You smell." He was trying to distract Rajesh from the fact that the port engine had shut down and the prop was wind milling. He didn't know how to 'feather' it.

He could see the strip a few miles ahead and so he turned out over the Straits and began his climb.

"Sheldon! What are you doing? The field is behind us! Aren't we going to land soon?" The smoke had dissipated and Sheldon split-essed and lined up the air strip.

"I think you're right, Raj. We need to land. Engage the flaps as we practiced and read out the airspeed and altitude please. Next stop, Mackinaw Island." '_And Penny.'_

Sheldon had spent hours going over the flight manuals and specifications for the old C-123 Provider and one fact had stuck in his mind: it had the glide ratio of a brick.

Penny saw Bomber talking with the woman who'd flown the first transport and walked over to both introduce herself and to inquire after Sheldon. Only Sheldon knew about the Island and it was inconceivable that they'd landed here because of the weather.

"Yeah, I know Dr. Know-It-All-And-Has-To-Have-His-Way. That's him on final approach." Her trained eye summed up the aircraft's attitude and trim…he wasn't doing half-bad considering he was on one engine. The Provider flew well on a single engine but not if the fuel ran out.

And at that exact moment in time the starboard engine sputtered and died and Penny swore she could hear Rajesh Koothrappali's squeal of terror even though she knew he was in India.

"Up, up, UP!" shouted Raj, as if Sheldon's wasn't doing his best to keep the nose of the Provider above the horizon.

"Put the gear down, Raj." In the back of is mind he was running several DRT problems, like how much longer would it take for the Provider to hit the runway at 88knts and how far would it move given the coefficient of friction and ruling out an immediate explosion as an influencing variable of unknown effect.

"UP," the onlookers seemed to shout in unison or at least Penny thought so. _'C'mon, Moon Pie, just twenty more feet and then you'll be down and safe. Just hit the brakes, sweetie, and hang on.'_


	43. Square Pegs in Round Holes

A/N: Apparently this is going to be a multi-part Epilogue. As some of you have asked and commented, yes, i'm thinking about a sequel but haven't finished the outline for it inasmuch as there's no guarantee that more than 53 readers would start it. I'll take it under advisement.

* * *

Epilogue Part 2 The Plague

"UP," the onlookers seemed to shout in unison or at least Penny thought so. _'C'mon, Moon Pie, just twenty more feet and then you'll be down and safe. Just hit the brakes, sweetie, and hang on.'_

The big transport seemed to float over the beginning of the runway as Sheldon used the rudder pedals to keep the nose aligned with the 1,700 feet of concrete that seemed to rush up at them at great speed.

Smoke began to billow out from underneath the instrument console again and fill the cockpit even though the ramp was partly down.

"Raj, the instant this piece of crap stops rolling, get the ramp down and get out. Don't worry about me. I'll be that flash of light you see whizzing past you. The cattle will fend for themselves but I want us well away from any effects of the explosion."

"Explosion? What the hell – "

The transport's wheels kissed the concrete runway in a near perfect landing. With both motors dead, it wasn't possible to reverse the thrust and slow the heavy aircraft so Sheldon literally stood on the brake pedals but the end of the runway seemed to rush towards them.

The ground speed indicator was slowly winding down from 90mph to 70mph then slowly to 40mph and finally, with only a hundred feet of runway remaining, it stopped.

"Out! Get out!" Sheldon yelled, hitting the quick release on his harness but Rajesh was already gone and Sheldon could hear the whine of the ramp lowering.

He slid down the ladder to the cargo deck and followed the last of the Brangus off the ramp. Raj was hugging Melissa who was torn between hugging him and holding him at bay because of the crap he'd rolled in.

Sheldon shuddered. He's slipped and fallen at least twice that he could remember in his haste to exit the winged death trap that now sat quietly as if nothing was wrong. He smelled like the streets of Mumbai and desperately needed a shower and a change of clothing.

* * *

Penny had watched as the transport made a near-perfect landing and ground past her going much too fast for her liking. She could hear the tortured squeal of the brakes as the lumbering aircraft began to slow down.

Penny jumped on a 4-wheeler and tore off for the slowing aircraft. She could see the smoke funneling out of the cockpit windows and then the big cargo ramp seemed to crash down and a man ran out and away from the smoking plane. He was followed by a small herd of Brangus that veered off across the runway towards the grassy verge. Every practical, they weren't going to pass up the opportunity to eat.

A woman broke from the group lined up beside the first transport to land and ran towards the figure now on his knees and kissing the ground. Penny was still too far away but laughed when the man jumped up to hug the woman who suddenly wasn't all that thrilled with the idea.

She slowed the 4-wheeler and then braked when she recognized the tall woman holding a filthy man at arms' length.

"Missy? Missy!" Penny vaulted off the 4-wheeler and ran up to the couple but stopped dead a few feet away, her arms still extended to hug the shit out of Missy when the smell hit her. Had someone already hugged the shit out of someone else? Ewww…

Missy heard her name called and turned and recognized Penny and lightly shoved stinking Raj away and hugged her new sister-in-law.

"Damn, girl, you're a sight for sore eyes. I thought fer sure the Choker got you but then Shelley showed up and stirred up a ton of shit and well, here we are. Look at you…married and everything." They both were crying and laughing, so glad to see one another alive.

"Penny, it is good to see you. Missy, when your brother has finished with his homecomings, I want you to beat the Bazinga out of him. Look at me! I smell like – "

"Damn it all, Rajesh Koothrappali, you're supposed to be in India with your folks and the Hindu Whore. How – " Penny was glad to see Raj but had no idea just how he came to be in Texas instead of India.

"I will tell you everything later but first I think you should greet your husband – that is if you still consider yourself married. Penny, you must quit being so foolishly stubborn where Sheldon is concerned and must admire his devotion to family. Once he found Missy, JR and I, all he talked about was returning to the Island and his wife. You _are_ still his wife, aren't you?"

Sheldon had stopped a few feet behind the trio and just stood looking at her. Her hair was longer and sun-bleached and she looked so good in jeans and a t-shirt and tennis shoes that he never wanted her to wear anything else. She was exactly how he'd pictured her in his daydreams.

"Yes, Penny, do you still consider us married or have you made good on your threat of finding someone else from the pool of eligible and available survivors?"

She whirled and threw herself at him, hugging him so hard that he wheezed when he breathed. She brought her palms up and held his face and just stared at him and then started to laugh.

Her hands were covered in fresh Brangus crap. He'd fallen in the cargo bay and Penny hadn't notices how _gooey _his back was. Now his cheeks were too.

"Sheldon, let's hold off on the physical stuff until we both take a shower. I missed you so much but I'm not going to kiss you when you're covered in cow poop. Take me home, Sheldon, unless you're needed here for some reason…"

If he said he had to stay for any reason at all she'd kill him right there on the spot. His place was with her, in the shower first and then their bed and then she'd stay by his side wherever he ventured. She'd been without him for so long and she vowed 'never again'.

"I just want to make sure that the Major meets your dad. Those two can organize the new arrivals and figure out how to handle all the ducks, geese and chickens we brought along. Won't take but half a sec and then I think we need to begin setting an example and spend time doing things that are _really_ important. The Colony will survive without us for a few days, right? We never really had a honeymoon…"

* * *

They took three days alone and away from everyone and everything. Cooked food appeared magically at their door at random times. They didn't starve, thanks to Penny's mom and Tasha who discovered that while Sheldon's brother, JR, was dumb as a box of rocks, he did have the same piercing blue eyes and weird sense of humor as Dr. Cooper. He also had a thing for little girls and had sweet-talked the first words out of Penny Blossom since she saw her daddy thrashing around on the floor, poisoned by a religious charlatan.

Sheldon watched Penny 'teach' her 9-year olds, picking up on the struggles of early North American colonists and his mind did what it did best, compare and contrast and discover anomalies that required further investigation.

He waved and blew her a kiss and stepped away from the group sprawled out under a large tree in the warm afternoon sun. He had questions and he needed answers.

* * *

Wyatt wanted to have a long sit-down with his son-in-law. Now that he was back home where he 'Goddamned belongs and needs to quit running off trying to save the world' (as he often muttered to Penny's mom, usually after something 'Sheldon-y' occurred), there were issues that needed resolved.

They adjourned to the coach that had carried the Pasadena group through the 'wilderness'. Wyatt looked at Sheldon and smirked but then frowned. '_I can tell exactly what he's been doing these past few days and I'd make some manly joke about it but – damn it! She's my daughter!'_

"We're going to be out of coffee soon and eventually our scrounging will taper off as distances become too great or other hazards make such trips too expensive in either people or fuel," said Sheldon wistfully, savoring the hot beverage that he'd avoided because he'd promised his mother that he'd stay off drugs - and caffeine was a drug.

"I've been thinking about that a lot, son. We can't survive unless we become self-sustaining and we're not even close to it. Running out of food isn't going to be a problem. We've planted more than 400 acres of consumables. What' going to the a problem is fuel for the diesel generators and – "

"And spare parts for when things break down, skilled hands to fix things, more medical personnel and equipment…the list goes on and on, Wyatt. I've been thinking of little else."

"I'm sure your wife appreciated that." Okay, he was allowed at least one off-color remark and the way Sheldon blushed made it worthwhile.

"Well, I meant en route to the Island and while I was in Texas. The past few days all I've done is think about what I might have lost - and other things, of course. I propose inventorying the skill sets of all our adult colonists and then form a database of sorts to match skills with immediate needs."

"Already done. Dr. Winkle put together a questionnaire and then she and some others, Howard, Bernadette and Cap'n Kaminski, interviewed them all. It's quite impressive but there are still problem areas and more will crop up as things break down."

"Wyatt, there needs to be some sort of hierarchy to make decisions and outline projects and day-to-day duties. I think the three you named should take over those tasks. And you, too. We need 'adults' and you already have the respect of most of us."

"What about you? We need leaders who will – "

"No. I'm no leader. I'm a follower. Just ask Penny and Leslie. Wyatt, I'm tired. The last months have burned me out. Tell me what to do and I'll do it but don't expect me to do more than follow instructions. I'd add Penny to your group but she's far too invested in her students to have the time, so I'd suggest Major Holmes. She's a true leader and has a good head on her shoulders."

"Okay. If that's the way you want to play it, fine. Here's a list of things 'to do'. Go do them." His voice carried bitter disappointment in his son-in-law. He'd expected him to step up and do what was necessary – just like leaving that woman to the coyotes – but instead he'd stepped back from his responsibilities.

"Wyatt, are you angry with me for some reason?" Just like his own father. Sheldon sensed disappointment and disapproval from a man he'd considered a mentor and father figure. _'Nothing new there. History repeats itself.'_

"Yes and no. Yes, because I expected more from you and no, because from everything I've observed, it's exactly what I should have expected."

"This list is quite lengthy and will require some assistance from others. Has Winkle put her database into one of the computers available?"

"Yes, go see her and select your team. I'll see you later, son. Jenny's making spaghetti tonight and you and Penny are expected."

Sheldon knew better than to ask if there were going to be 'little hot dogs' or if the sauce was the one he preferred. Such things belonged in another age.

And that was the problem in a nutshell. So did he.


	44. Be Careful What You Wish For

Epilogue Part 3 The Plague

A/N: It's over. Sequel? ummmmmmmmm maybe.

thanks for reading and commenting

Reparata

* * *

Cooper Residence  
Mackinaw Island

"Sheldon, are you ready to go, honey?" Penny wore what was pretty much her standard uniform – jeans, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. Someday she'd go scrounging for girly clothes but she hadn't needed _any_ clothes until today. She and her husband (she loved that word) had spent almost all their time together naked and doing lewd and lascivious things that had brought both of them pleasure and bonded them as a couple once again.

"I suppose so. Penny, your father appears to be disappointed in me for some reason. Do you have any idea what I've done to upset him?"

Penny did. She and her father had argued bitterly about Sheldon's future role in the colony and it had driven another wedge between father and daughter. Her mother arranged this dinner to try and get them comfortable with each other again.

"Nope," she lied. Yes, she lied to her husband but she didn't want to get into it right then and now. There would be time enough in the future.

Sheldon sighed as if burdened by the weight of the world and together they walked over to the Ford household.

* * *

Dinner was tense. Three of the four eating spaghetti with Ragu spaghetti sauce kept looking sideways at the others until finally Sheldon could tolerate the nausea-inducing silent confrontations no more.

"There is tension here that wasn't here when I left. Has my return created a problem between you? If so, I have several options to restore harmony."

Penny dropped her fork onto her plate and reached across the small table and grabbed both Sheldon's hands in hers and looked to be on the verge of tears.

"You listen to me, Sheldon Cooper. The only option I'll even consider is the one where you and I spend the rest of our days and nights together, wherever we are. Understand me, Moon Pie?"

Sheldon looked down at their hands, his so much bigger and hers so strong and yet still feminine. She knew about his horrible nightmares and that's why she'd stress 'days and _nights'_ in her comments.

He looked up at her and said the only thing that was on his mind at the specific moment in time.

"I'll always love you, Penny, no matter where I am." He hesitated and then slowly pulled his hands from hers and looked at his father-in-law.

"The options are that Penny and I can leave here and never return and thus I will no longer be inflicting myself on you; that Penny and I can leave the island and find another group of survivors with which to join; and finally, you can simply tell me why this tension exists and how you feel it can best be dealt with."

Wyatt's lip curled up and he threw his napkin down on his plate and left the table. Penny's mom just shook her head and continued eating, making comments about things on the island and asking Penny questions that she knew Sheldon would feel bound to respond to also.

She finally set her own fork down and steepled her fingers and sighed. "Sheldon, he wanted you to resume running things. He doesn't like being 'in charge' and would much prefer that you took back responsibility for planning just as you did before we arrived here on Mackinaw Island."

"But I wasn't 'running things"! I simply followed the group's consensus on matters and did what was necessary to achieve our goal and I'm ashamed of many of the things that were done but I've come to see the wisdom of the 3-fingers in taking an action that runs contrary to the rules of science, law or society."

Jenny hid her smile behind her steepled fingertips as she listened to her daughter's husband eloquently make his case. He was truly different and she wondered if her daughter knew just how different her life was going to be with such a man in it?

"Shel, English language version, please?"

He smiled and nodded. _'Of course. I keep forgetting that they can't follow my thought processes to the inevitable end point where logic drives man's actions.'_

He made a fist and raised one finger – "Is it good? Does the act fall within acceptable parameters of Man's moral code."

He raised a second finger, the middle one that doubled as the 'bird', and Penny had to giggle but stifled it when she saw Sheldon's eyes narrow. _'Moon Pie hates being interrupted.'_

"Second, is it right? Meaning is it the _correct_ decision to be made in the absence of a positive response to the first query."

"Third, is it _necessary?_ I have had to make too many decisions that were neither moral nor correct but were necessary – and I'm weary of it. It drags at something I feel my mother would call my 'soul'. And I'm so tired of it. All I want is to go back to the way things were before the Chocker but since that's impossible without a major breakthrough in tachyon physics, then I simply want to live my life in peace with my best friend, lover and soul mate."

Penny had known things were bad from the horrible turmoil she'd seen in Sheldon's eyes when she'd awakened him from a nightmare but never had she imagined that he was in such emotional pain.

'_I know now how hard it was for him to leave me and go off in search of his sister. I can see him staring at that damned third finger and cringing but still sucking it up and moving on. They can't expect more of him than he's capable of giving. I won't allow it.'_

Jenny had the decency to look away when she saw how tear-filled Sheldon's eyes had become. She and Wyatt had discussed the colony's need for a strong central figure that would not allow emotion to overrule common sense in making critical decisions but never had they considered what it would cost.

She reached over and put her hand over his and said softly, "Wyatt was diagnosed with liver cancer just when the Choker hit and things fell apart. He's dying and he's afraid that without a strong and resolute figure head, the colony will lose it's direction and fragment into special interest groups, each with its own agenda."

She looked at her daughter, the shock and sadness on her face, the way she was looking at the door her dad had left by…she nodded and Penny got up and ran after her dad.

"Sheldon, you don't have to be The Man. All you have to do is execute the policies and decisions of the group of people you yourself created to 'think' for the convoy, then the expedition, and finally 'the Colonists'. Without your presence, nothing will get done. Things will decay and slowly slide into anarchy."

Sheldon looked over at Jenny and nodded. "It's necessary. I will comply."

* * *

He held his wife while she cried herself to sleep. His Meemaw and mother were dead, yes, but he hadn't had to sit and watch the slow process of death taking a loved one away.

"Penny," he whispered to his sleeping wife, "I will make him proud."

* * *

Two Months Later

The coach that had seemed so roomy when he'd first set eyes on it now seemed cramped and suffocating. Perhaps it was the fact that 10 people were crowded into it or maybe the fact that he was balking at implementing the group's decision.

Penny sat beside him, her hand resting palm down on his thigh to keep him from bouncing it nervously. Periodically she'd draw little circles on it with the tips of her fingers and she liked it when his breath would hitch.

"Sheldon, it has to be done. Set a precedent. He was found guilty because of the evidence and he sat there, _smirking,_ all during the trial. We have no facilities for housing criminals and the female population needs to be shown that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in our society."

Rape. It was such a brutal sounding word and so appropriate for the act. Charles Dixon had raped Catherine Fulmer while both were on a scrounging mission and the bastard had bragged about it – but he maintained it was consensual sex.

The broken nose and torn lips and other bruises screamed otherwise. The verdict had been swift: guilty.

"You all agree with the punishment?" Sheldon asked. It was brutal but not as brutal as rape. They had discussed and debated the punishment until finally they reached a consensus.

"Yes, Sheldon. Banishment to the Door Peninsula above the Canal. Food and water for three days and a penknife. Let him make his own way through life. Banishment." Winkle had argued for castration and a period of incarceration in Fort Washington but the others finally wore her down and she capitulated.

The crowd outside waited patiently while the 'Committee' determined a punishment. This was the first such crime that wasn't petty theft, public drunkenness or something so ordinary that isolation for a period of time from the community didn't have the desired effect.

Sheldon nodded to the group and then stood and walked down out of the coach. They filed out and stood behind him in a small semi-circle. Charles Dixon stood in handcuffs, an armed colonist on either side holding his arms.

"A complaint was filed. An investigation was made and it was determined that a crime had been committed. A trial was held and the accused was represented by competent council and based on the evidence presented, was found guilty of Rape by a jury of his fellow colonists."

"Charles Dixon, do you have anything to say before sentence is pronounced?"

"Yeah, ya bunch a losers." He glared at Sheldon and then laughed. "Go ahead, throw me out. I'll survive and there are other women out there – and maybe someday I'll come back – with friends and we'll - "

He saw that irritating smirk again. It reminded him of someone he couldn't quite place.

Sheldon interrupted him. "The decision of the Committee is that you be banished for life." There was a murmuring of dissent among some of the colonists but no one spoke up. Dixon just smirked.

'_Sheep. They are like sheep. How long before the human wolves that roam around the Wilderness in packs confront the sheep? They need a cold dose of reality. They need to see a demonstration of raw power and how lucky they are that it's benign and in their own interest.'_

Penny saw his fingers move, tapping his palm one at a time. One, two, three.

Penny started to say something to Leslie but she was too late.

Sheldon drew his 9mm pistol and shot Charles Dixon in the forehead.

"I don't agree."

There were a few gasps but overall not much of a reaction at all. Perhaps they were in shock or stunned at his actions. He turned his back on colonists and faced the shocked committee and a few of their 'hangers on' and said, "A wise woman once told me to never leave an enemy in my rear. From this moment on any scrounging party will be twice the size and fully armed. No more turning the other cheek."

Wyatt had witnessed the entire event and felt a moment of guilt but it was crushed by the pride he felt in Sheldon Cooper.

'_Leonard would have voted for a year or so in the lighthouse. Well, Slugger always said she liked the bad boys. Looks like she married herself the badest boy of all.'_

* * *

A/N: That's it. I may write a sequel but I have one project in limbo right now (Tsunami Aftermath) and a really whacko quasi-romantic parody that will probably languish on my hard drive until the cows inherit Burger King.

Thanks for reading my tripe. Your reviews were entertaining and very informative and some of you are down right brilliant in your recognition of the greatness of my prose (self-effacing comments).


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